Gingham check or stripe is said to originate from Malaysia and was imported to Europe and America in the 1700s. The Masai people have worn it in traditional dress for thousands of years. Gingham is a woven or printed cotton striped or checked with two colours. A truly international fabric the check can be found in women's dress in probably every country in the world. I love all the different ways its layered and used in different cultures. An interesting thought is that the two colours represent good and evil, combined with traditional summer dress for children still today. Will they become good or bad girls? Society is closely connected to cotton in each country and linked the world together. Sadly not in the fair way it should have beenManchester wove ginghams, so did India and now China, Japan and America produce ginghams. In the 17th and 18th century people were kidnapped from Africa and forced to pick cotton as slaves in the British colonies of America. Today land and waters are polluted by the textile industry. Cotton hasn't always been good. Today there are fair trade options that are also organic, if only this was the only option. In the 20th Century gingham has been used as a puritanical pattern representing the christian, cleaner than clean, domestic version of femininity. Hollywood musicals of the civil war and wholesome stories of family. Southern Belles and 1950s kitchens. Brigitte Bardot married in a gingham dress sparking a fashion revolution and setting up Biba in business. Mods took on the check, the monochrome 2-tone which was then taken harder by the punks and skinheads. Gingham sure has a checkered history. (pardon the pun) Images from pinterest 1809 gingham fashion plate - Jane Austen era soft blue gingham. Feminine Summery. Painting of young girl in gingham 1767 with Doll. English unknown painter - Children's wear has been traditionally gingham for summer school dresses. The painting uses soft pinks and blues. Woman in 19th century, Victorian era hooped gingham dress and matching bonnet. The bodice looks pleated at the waist. Gullah GeeChee women of Carolina I'm not sure on the date of this photo but I love the mix of cotton fabrics and how they are styled. The Gullah GeeChee people are descendants of the enslaved people from Central and West Africa. They worked along the cotton belt states of the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia. Being sectioned from the inland states, the Gullah Geechee people were able to maintain their original cultural heritage, arts and languages. American group portrait 1860 civil war era by S C Landon found in the Library of Congress. Women with hooped skirts and gingham dresses. I don't know who these people are but I would like to know the story. I immediately assume a sinister nature as many similar photographs of this era displayed people of colour as a symbol of wealth. But maybe this isn't the story? She is central to the image. Textile portrait of a New Orleans Woman with gingham headscarves and daughter late 18th Century. Free woman of colour. Mexican women sewing approx mid to late19th century. Gingham full skirted dress with shawl collar. This is a style continued by Frida Khalo. Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies, photographed by Camille Silvy, 1862 Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies was born into a Royal West African dynasty. She was orphaned in 1848, when her parents were killed in a slave-hunting war. She was around five years old. In 1850, Sarah was taken to England and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift” from the King of Dahomey. She became the queen’s goddaughter and a celebrity known for her intelligence. God daughter to Queen Victoria Sarah Forbes Bonetta 1862 in plaid stripe full skirted dresses. Frida Khalo in a ruffled gingham blouse embellished with ric rac ribbon. 1930s. Frida Khalo in blouse and traditional full gingham skirt. Almost Victorian in style. Cyprus late 19th century dress. Costume of Karpasia,