the

HISTORIC
pa t t e r n s
STYLE
GUIDE
30 CLASSIC
PATTERN STYLES
FOR REFERENCE
& INSPIRATION

BY BÄRBEL DRESSLER
 Hi there!

I’m Bärbel Dressler - a surface designer,

online educator and history nerd living
in Stockholm, Sweden.

I’ve studied historic pattern styles since

2015 and this is how I learned advanced-
pattern design with create complex com-
positons and balanced designs.

All these beautiful and timeles classic

pattern styles havealso influenced and
helped me develop my own design style
and opened doors to a row of fun
collaboratons.

With this Historic patterns style guide I hope to inspire you to learn more about
historic pattern styles and motivate you to create new types of patterns. Perhaps it will
give you some ideas for your next pattern design, or even a whole pattern collection?

Just to be clear, this is just 30 of the classic pattern styles and types I’ve come across,
there are more of course.

Lastly, besides inspiring us, we can learn a lot from these historic styles;
1. Expand our awareness and knowledge about pattern design and its icons in general.

2. Improve our design skills for creating motifs, layout, composition and color.

3. Throughout history every new trend is a reaction and rebellion to the trend before,
so by looking at what is trendy right now we can get clues to coming trends.

4. Develop your own personal style by exploring motifs, techniques and subjects used
by the masters before us.

I truly hope you will enjoy and have use for this guide in your own work!

/ Bärbel
The Evolution Membership for pattern designers: historyrepeating.se/evolution
Facebook: Pattern Design with Bärbel Dressler
Instagram: @bearbellproductions

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ARABESQUE is an elaborate and ornamental pattern
style with rhythmic, linear motifs often depicting
scrolling, interlacing and overlapping foliage, tendrils,
stylized plants and florals. Arabesque patterns often
consists of motif elements that are mirrored or rotated
to create a pattern tile.

ARGYLE is a geometric pattern of diamond or lozenge

shapes in a checkerboard arrangement and in combi-
nation with crossing dashed lines - all in a diagonal
layout. It’s a type of tartan pattern and derives from
the tartan of Clan Campbell of Argyll in Scotland.

ARTS AND CRAFTS patterns are created or inspired

by the designers of the Arts and Crafts movement
between 1860 to 1910 in England. Patterns in the Arts
and Crafts style are typically complex and layered, with
flat and fairly stylized trailing, scrolled or mirrored
motifs depicting branches, leaves and flowers from the
English countryside and gardens.

ART DECO is a fairly minimalistic design style typical

of the 1920 - 1030s and has a glamorous sentiment to
it. The patterns typically include bold motifs built of
geometrical shapes and lines such as spheres, cubes,
chevrons, squares in symmetrical combinations. It can
also depict highly stylized flowers, leaves and water.

ART NOUVEAU is an ornamental, elaborate style that

flourished between 1890 and 1910 and is characterized
by dynamic, flowing curves, asymmetrical and whiplike
lines. The motifs were inspired by nature, with flower
stalks and buds, vine tendrils, Acanthus leaves, insect
wings and other delicate and winding objects.

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AWNING STRIPES - An awning stripe pattern is a
bright and bold pattern with equally-sized, fairly wide
and vertical stripes of solid color. They’re typically
made with a darker color against a white or light color.
Awning stripes are often used for coastal, beach and
nautical decors. Another common name for this stripe
is Block stripe.

BALANCED STRIPE patterns consist of vertical,

colored stripes of different sizes, arranged in a sym-
metrical layout with the widest stripe in the center and
surrounded by thinner stripes. It was popular during
the 18th century and was the called Peking stripe.

BAUHAUS patterns are minimalistic and

characterized by simplicity and straightforward
geometrical shapes and lines in bold primary and
secondary colors, as well as black and white. The style
originated Germany around 1920.

BUFFALO CHECK is a classic allover pattern style

with big squares formed by the intersection of two
wide stripes/bands of different colors, usually red and
black. It’s often used for furnishing fabrics and casual
shirts.

CHINOISERIE patterns are what we call any type of

western interpretation of an oriental design. An
important influence for the style is Chinese blue and
white porcelain, with motifs scrolled leaves and flow-
ers, landscape, figures and geometric shapes. Other
patterns are inspired by Chinese and Japanese paint-
ings and murals of blossoming trees, plants and birds.

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DAMASK is an ornamental pattern style with reflected
motifs in a diagonal layout. It can have different levels
of complexity with a sparse layout of only one repeated
motif or dense with up to four intertwining motifs.
The name Damask comes from the Damask fabric that
was produced in Damascus, using a weaving technique
with origins in ancient China and Middle East.

DIAPER patterns originated in ancient Greece, where

they were characterized by a white background and
motifs in a diagonal layout. The name Diaper comes
from the Greek word Diasporo which is what this type
of patterns were called in ancient Greece, Rome and
the Byzantium empire.

GINGHAM is a small to medium scaled plaid pattern

style composed of crossing stripes in a color on a white
background. Where the stripes cross they create a
darker tone, which is a characteristic of the Gingham
pattern style. The original Gingham fabrics that were
imported to Europe in the 17th century had patterns
with only vertical stripes though.

HARLEQUIN is a pattern style with diamond shaped

motifs in multiple colors and dark or bright outlines.
The name Harlequin comes from a clown like charac-
ter in Commedia dell’arte, which was a 16th century
Italian theater movement. The Harlequins wore cos-
tumes sewn together from fabric scraps. Over time it
evolved into this classic pattern style.

HOUNDSTOOTH is a classic pattern style character-

ized by a four-pointed shape, or broken check, that is
said to resemble a dog tooth. It’s traditionally done in
black and white and in a tesselating composition. The
first to use the Houndstooth pattern style is said to be
shepherds in the Scottish Highlands, who liked how it
wouldn’t show mud splashes on their clothes.

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IKAT is originally a resist-dye technique where the
threads are tied to create only colored sections that is
woven into the fabric and creates a geometric pattern
with more or less blurry lines. This look has also given
name to a pattern style which resembles or simulates
the impression of these blurred geometric shapes and
lines.

INDIAN FLORAL is a pattern style of highly stylized

flowers, leaves, fruits that evolved from the Tree of life
motif, an ancient symbol for the different stages of
life. The Indian Floral style came to Europe during
the last part of the 17th century, with the import of
printed cotton from India. The style evolved into a
more delicate version using the European flora. Other
names for this style is Indienne or Chintz.

JACOBEAN refers to an embroidery style during the

reign of King James I of England in the last part of the
17th century. The style was highly influenced by the
patterns and motifs that could be found on the printed
cottons imported from India, with flowers, plants and
animals. A popular motif was the Tree of Life. See also
Indian Floral.

KILIM is an ethnic pattern style typically used on rugs

and carpets from countries and regions in former
Persian Empire, such as Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the
Balkans and Central Asia. Kilim is originally a weaving
technique that creates the characteristic diagonal lines
and shapes of highly stylized motifs. The motifs often
includes symbolisms of motherhood, fertility and
protection from the evil eye or a scorpions bite.

MILLEFLEUR means ”thousand flowers” in French

and refers to a style packed with small flowers, leaves
and twigs. It was used on European tapestries during
the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance from
around 1400 to 1550. The style is similar to Ara-
besque designs, but Millefleurs uses many different
types of flowers and plants, without connecting or
overlapping.

6
OGEE refers to an S-shaped line where the ends point
in opposite directions. When mirrored it creates an
onion-like shape that is also called an ogee and can be
used for creating an Ogee pattern. The ogee shape was
first seen in textiles from the 12 century, but was also
one of the characteristic shapes in the Gothic and
Gothic revival architecture style.

PAISLEY is an ancient pattern style with roots in the

Persian Empire around 1700 BC. It’s characterized by
the Boteh - a teardrop shaped motif decorated with
stylized organic shapes and objects like flowers, buds
and leaves. Paisley came to Europe with cashmere
shawls in the early 1800 and domestic manufacturing
was quickly established with a center in the Scottish
town Paisley, which gave it its name.

PROVENCALS is a romantic style with floral motifs,

often in combination with geometric shapes and back-
grounds. This style is a development of the 18th centu-
ry Indian Floral that was designed by european design-
ers for the European market and could be either light
and airy with a sparse layout, or more dense and elab-
orate.

POLKA DOT is a classic pattern style that traditionally

consists of an array of fairly large, equally sized and
evenly distributed filled circles. It’s classically done
with the dots in a bright cheerful color on a white or
off-white background - or reverse. It first occurred in
its classic form and name in the later part of the 19th
century as a marketing trick.

QUATREFOIL patterns made with a geometric motif

depicting a stylized flower with four petals or a leaf
with four lobes and that was a common motif in
Gothic art and design. A similar motif is a trefoil,
which has three petals or lobes instead. The quatrefoil
shape is ancient and can be found both in the Mayan
culture as well as early Christian churches.

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REGENCY STRIPE is a pattern style with origins in
India and that became popular in Britain and Europe
in the late 18th century with the emergence of the Neo
classic style. The characteristic of the Regency Stripe is
a symmetric combination of a wide stripe in one color,
surrounded by two or more narrower stripes in a
second color.

TARTAN is a plaid pattern style of criss-crossing

bands and stripes of different sizes originating from
the woven fabrics used in the Scottish Highlands and
the Gaelic culture. There are many different Tartan
patterns, traditionally designated for and representing
a Scottish clan.

TATTERSALL is a quite small scaled plaid pattern

made of thin and evenly spaced lines, typically in two
alternating colors on a light background. The name
comes from the Tattersall’s horse market, which is a
race-horse auction house. During the 18th century
Tattersall’s sold horse blankets with this type of plaid
pattern.

TOILE DE JOUY is an 18th century narrative pattern

style with motifs of pastoral scenes depicting the coun-
tryside, couples courting, events, current trends and
exotic places. The name means ”cloth from Jouy”
which refers to the village Jouy en Josas just outside of
Versailles where one of the most famous manufacturers
of printed cottons with this pattern style was located.

VERMICULAR patterns have organic looking motifs

of irregular, twisting lines that resembles the traces
made by woodworms. The lines can be smooth, dashed
or dotted. Vermicular patterns were often used as a
texture or background pattern in 18th and 19th centu-
ry printed cotton fabrics.