Back from the Bahamas in 1941, Lucile and Remy Chatain Sr. of CW Stockwell textiles asked illustrator Albert Stockdale: Could he distill the island’s jungly land- scapes into a wallpaper? He could: The banana-leaf pattern Martinique, launched the next year, would soon be installed in CW Stockwell’s showroom—and featured in AD. Decorator Don Loper set eyes on CW Stockwell’s striking install—cut around the top to give the surreal sense that plants were sprouting from the floor—and thought it might work in his redo of the Beverly Hills Hotel with architect Paul Williams. In 1949, renovation complete, Martinique famously forested the hotel’s halls, stairwells, and Fountain Coffee Room.

Martinique flourishes at Kaleidoscope House, a bed-and-breakfast in Norfolk, England. Image courtesy of thebigdomain.com.

Remy Chatain Sr. in CW Stockwell's showroom in 1947. Maynard L. Parker, photographer/Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California

“It capitalized on the spirit that the war was newly over, and everyone was looking inward to their homes,” explains CW Stockwell’s new CEO, Katy Polsby, who unveiled three fresh hues of Martinique, the California firm’s signature, in March. The paper is available through CW Stockwell from $228 per roll. Martinique’s major competitor was Schumacher’s Jungle Leaves, a 1947 debut that Manhattan designer Dorothy Draper created for Quitandinha, Brazil’s deluxe gambling resort. Brighter than Martinique, accented with glistening sea grapes, and today called Brazilliance, it is sold through dorothydraperfw.com.

The breakfast room in Nicky Hilton Rothschild's former L.A. home. Paul Costello / AUGUST.

The papers reflected the rage for tropicalia that was sweeping the nation—remember Carmen Miranda’s campy movie sets? Today’s influencers, from Nate Berkus to Nicky Hilton Rothschild, are just as entranced. “I first saw Martinique at the Beverly Hills Hotel as a little girl,” recalls the heiress-entrepreneur, who lined her L.A. breakfast room with the pattern. “Then many years later at Bungalow 8.” Proof positive that these leaves show no signs of wilting.