Mackintosh Pinks Chiffon Scarf

DESIGNER'S NOTES

A Fox & Chave silk chiffon scarf with a design after the watercolour still life study simply entitled Pinks by the Glaswegian Architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928)

The study reveals Mackintosh's distinctive approach to botanical subjects, far removed from conventional floral illustration. Painted around 1915 during his years in Walberswick, Suffolk, the work depicts the slender stems and serrated petals of dianthus with an almost architectural precision.

Mackintosh employed pale washes and reserved white space to emphasise structure, allowing the rhythm of vertical stalks and angled blossoms to suggest a design as much as a likeness. The flattened perspective and stylised arrangement echo his work in decorative arts, where natural forms were abstracted into motifs for textiles and interiors.

Unlike many contemporaries, he often worked directly from wildflowers collected locally, treating them as both specimens and sources of formal invention.

COLOURS

STYLING

There are many ways to style a Fox & Chave chiffon silk scarf including the basic drape, belted drape and reverse drape. Our chiffon silk scarfs look really good worn in the bandit knot or faux infinity style too. More scarf styling ideas are available in this wonderful How to Tie a Scarf book.