At Valentino, Gucci and Etro, designers delight in the look of Islamic motifs

T-MAGAZINE
By Charlotte Di Caraci

In Farsi, the word for carpet, pronounced farsh, means ‘‘to spread,’’ and it’s not hard to imagine why so many designers this season have enveloped models in the intriguing patterns and flowing silhouettes of the Islamic world. Geometric ornamentation had its roots in the Greek and Roman eras, but reached its pinnacle in the Islamic Golden Age, when artists, influenced by mathematicians, astronomers and scientists of the time, elaborated on the motifs to stress unity and order. Circles represented the infinity of Allah and the square the four elements of air, fire, water and earth. [link]

A ceramic stool by the English designer Tracey Boyd available at Anthropologie