Museum Stores
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Larger art museums tend to love nothing more than making reproductions of their pieces for sale in their gift shops -- posters, postcards, t-shirts, umbrellas, and yes, scarves. While many of us may not delight in the idea of walking around with a Kandinksy painting wrapped around our heads (although of course some might, and some of the most common reproductions on scarves to be found are stroke-for-stroke copies of the works of Van Gogh or Monet), don't also forget that museums display a great many textiles and prints that convert beautifully into less blatant art reproduction apparel. What's more, many also sell online, if good museums are regionally inaccessible to you. The above examples are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago have some lovely shop-from-home selections as well. They are definitely not priced for everyday wear but, as said above, make especially lovely gifts.
(Note the second in the top row particularly. It is a William Morris print; as an Arts and Crafts primarily floral wallpaper designer his work usually is especially appropriate and not so difficult to find, be it as scarves, handbags, or just raw fabrics to do with as you wish.)
Specialty Textile Dealers
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I have a thing for Lao weaving as is above. I was absolutely delighted, then, to come across Marla Mallett who, in addition to various antique textiles, deals in contemporary Lao silks. They are heavy. Not break-your-neck heavy, but certainly dense in a way that is inappropriate for warm weather. They are expensive. Again not necessarily breaking the bank any more than the neck, but still out of the range of what most of us would be comfortable spending on ourselves without a particular reason. But still they are stunning, and on just the right person at just the right formal occasion they could be perfect.
Still, for more comfortable, casual, and affordable wear there are also those who deal in indian block prints. They are often more elaborate and prettier than machine prints, in my own opinion, although it can sometimes take some weeding through to find something you like if you prefer a more muted palate, as I do.
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You might try scarves such as the above examples from Heritage Trading (who also deals in slightly more expensive -- though less so than the Lao brocades -- woven and embroidered shawls). Since they update their available inventory often (think daily), if their prints seem a bit much it is worthwhile to check back again.
Labels: scarfistry
