Oriental Wisteria Silk Habotai Scarf

DESIGNER'S NOTES

This refined Fox & Chave silk habotai scarf features an element from a Japanese wall hanging by Suzuki Shonen. It depicts red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis), also called the Manchurian crane or Japanese crane, amongst wisteria fronds and a type of stiff evergreen called a cycad.

The son of Suzuki Hyakunen, the founder of the Suzuki school of painting, Suzuki Shonen was a major Kyoto-based Nihonga artist of the late Meiji period (1868-1912). Held in high esteem he was often compared to Soga Shōhaku (1730-1781), both being somewhat radical and swashbuckling for their time.

The wall hanging forms part of the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, and was gifted to the institution by Sir Herbert Ingram (1811-1860) founder of the Illustrated London News and considered the father of pictorial journalism.

COLOURS

STYLING

A Fox & Chave habotai silk scarf can be worn with the classic knot style or a pussycat bow. You can even create a shawl effect by knotting two scarves together behind your neck and allowing them to drape over your shoulders. More scarf styling ideas are available in this wonderful How to Tie a Scarf book.