Patrick Francis
Patrick Francis offers a stunning array of Irish-designed accessories that seamlessly blend Celtic tradition with modern style. Renowned for their luxurious fabrics and quality design, Patrick Francis is Irish-owned and based in Dublin, the epicenter of contemporary Irish style.
Every accessory is exquisitely crafted from the finest natural fibers, including silk, wool, and cashmere, ensuring unparalleled warmth and softness. Patrick Francis is known for its incorporation of Celtic art and traditional Irish design into even their most contemporary designs, including scarves, pashminas, ties, and flat caps. With items ranging from delicate silk scarves to chunky Aran knits for men, women, and children, Patrick Francis has accessories for any taste and style.
Luxurious Patrick Francis Scarves
Patrick Francis pashminas are crafted from the finest silk mix with subtle Celtic detailing on the edges. Their monotone wool scarves feature delicate styling in a range of beautiful, vibrant colors, while their two-tone scarves offer striking color combinations in luscious blues, greens, reds, and purple. Printed silk scarves feature watercolor effects and foil highlights to depict Dublin’s storied Merrion Square, traversed by such literary greats as Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce, while a line of shamrock patterns offers one of Ireland’s most well-known symbols in updated navy, cream, and green tones.
Patrick Francis Knitwear Collection
Patrick Francis also offers a wide selection of chunky wool knitwear inspired by the hearty sweaters first produced on the Aran Islands to keep local fishermen warm while on the choppy seas. The quality workmanship of Patrick Francis knitwear can be seen in the attention to detail of the cable and diamond patterns of their hats, scarves, gloves, and capes that owe their design to the first Aran knit patterns developed in the early 20th century.
How Irish History Inspires Celtic Designs
What we think of today as “Celtic art” traces its roots back to more than 300 years before Christ when trade routes brought La Tène culture to Ireland for the first time. La Tène culture was a Swiss Alps Iron Age Celtic society that focused on abstract representations of the natural world. After the Romans invaded Britain in the first century A.D., Ireland’s version of La Tène art evolved in isolation, creating a unique form of Gaelic art that is still in use today, comprising mainly intricate formulations of what we now call Celtic knots and spirals vibrantly illustrated in bold colors and precious metals. With the advent of illuminated manuscripts around the seventh century, Irish monks became the premier artists of the era, decorating sacred Christian texts with images of animals, plant life, humans, and increasingly complex lettering that featured series of overlapping and intertwining knot-like patterns, symbolizing the presence of God in the natural world and the interconnectivity of all living things, making these motifs as much a philosophical statement as they were a decoration. The most famous of all the Irish illuminated manuscripts is the Book of Kells, housed in Trinity College Dublin’s library since the Cromwellian era of the 17th century. The book, which at its most basic level is a scribal transcription of the four Gospels in Latin, is heavily illuminated with countless figures in bold colors, including green, blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange. Some pages contain as little writing as a single phrase, the space taken up by the artwork surrounding the lettering. Since its creation, it has fascinated people for its unparalleled beauty and has inspired, unsurprisingly, countless generations of artists and designers looking for a connection to an ancient Gaelic past.
It is this history that Patrick Francis offers to the modern man or woman, the chance to revel in the sumptuous detail of old Irish culture and heritage. Order your Patrick Francis designed gift today!