Orange scarf with floral pattern

A long orange floral scarf, light at one end and solid at the other

The two halves do not match, and that is deliberate. The upper half keeps a white ground and covers it with small tight flowers drawn like miniature posies. The lower half turns the arrangement round: the ground fills in with orange, continuous and unbroken, while the flower shapes are reserved in white and set into a close regular grid. The same colour does two opposite jobs depending on which end you are looking at. To see how that choice sits beside the other prints, look at the shelf where squares and long shapes are kept side by side.

Terracotta and amber, not a single orange

Up close the upper half uses two tones rather than one. A deep terracotta carries most of the flowers, and a lighter amber picks out others among them. That slight unevenness is what stops the print reading as wallpaper, and it explains why the top half looks busier than the bottom even though both are equally covered.

Living with 110 x 180 cm of length

At this length the easiest thing to do is a loose double wrap. The first turn hides part of the print, the second leaves two uneven ends hanging, and it is nearly always the pale border that ends up under the chin. Worn open instead, the scarf shows the whole switch at once, pale end to orange end. Where the knot needs to be small, in the hair or tight at the collar, a bandana square of 55 x 55 cm does that better than this much length. For care, the catalogue gives a 30°C wash.

Colours that let the orange speak

The solid orange is the half that decides. It works with off-white, beige, denim blue and khaki, all of which leave it room. It flattens next to a strong red or a deep pink, because those pull everything into the same family of tones and the contrast between the two halves disappears. The upper half, lighter thanks to its white ground, takes a dark companion more easily, so against a navy or black coat that is the end worth leaving on show.

The model, end by end

That plain band is the only part with no print on it. It frames both halves and reappears down the middle, showing as a pale strip when the scarf hangs straight at the front. In the photograph you can see through it: this is a light open cloth that drops rather than holds a fold.