Pattern: Vertical Stripes for Sample

Pattern: Vertical Stripes

Before the stripes became modern, it turns out that they were initially a sign of expulsion. French social historian Michel Pastoureau writes that in the European Middle Ages striped cloth took on strong connotations of deviance and abasement. Servants and court jesters wore striped cloth; so did prostitutes, madmen, and criminals, not voluntarily but by official orders.

The striped cloth also had a role to play in heraldry.  Use of striped cloth survives in the practice of suspending medals signifying civil and military honors from striped grosgrain ribbon, with the color, width, and placement of stripes specified exactly by the rules of the decoration. Ribbon in the tricolor pattern of red, white, and blue, often folded into a rosette worn as a hat decoration, became a potent symbol of the French Revolution.