Over the years, Anna bought thousands of textiles, most of which she sold to clients and some of which she returned, although many were still in the shop at her death and are now in RISD's collection. Taken together, they show the design developments of the thirty-odd years of the Tirocchi shop's operation. The textiles reflect not only the development of new technology during the period, but are clear evidence of the advent of modernism and the various styles that it spawned in art as well as decoration. Little remained in the shop from before 1920, but a few pieces are dated by an inventory completed in or about that year. These include several embroidered net borders and lengths patterned with traditional and modern motifs. A length of "Meteor" lace purchased from Maginnis &Thomas has an "amoeba" pattern that suggests the sculptures of Jean Arp and anticipates surrealist designs of the 1930s [fig. 166]. Two cut panels of silk with gold lamé have a stepped motif that foreshadows the "skyscraper" patterns of the late 1920s and 30s [fig. 167]. Geometric patterns also appear among these textiles, while tradition is continued in allover seed beading, florals, and chinoiserie patterns in this inventory, which also includes many examples of machine-made laces, ribbons, and silks.

The 1920s, the heyday of the shop, are represented by hundreds of pieces in the myriad of patterns common to that decade. Many textiles showing an Asian influence reflect artistic trends that predate the early twentieth century. The popularity of chinoiserie (objects or decoration in a "Westernized" Chinese style) in European art dates to the eighteenth century. When Chinese art and decorative objects began to flow into Europe in the sixteenth century, stylized chrysanthemums, Chinese fret patterns, and slim Chinese figures became a recognizable vocabulary in Western decorative arts. Particularly in the eighteenth century, furniture in the Chinese "taste," French wallpapers replete with Chinese scenes, porcelain dining services decorated with Chinese motifs, and silk textiles and ceramics painted in China for the Western market had an important influence in Britain and America, one that has infused and enlivened the decorative arts from that time until this. A "robe" dating to the mid-1920s from the Tirocchi shop is embroidered with pink, green, yellow, and ivory chinoiserie flowers and may even have been embroidered in China for the Western market. This was not a new practice: pre-embroidered pieces of fabric for clothing exist in indigenous Chinese styles from the eighteenth century. These were primarily used for imperial and official robes and may even have been common well before that time. A second chinoiserie found in the Tirocchi shop is but a fragment of what must have been a spectacular chemise dress: its exotic bird is beaded and sequined to create the maximum shine and glitter [fig. 168]. One final example is a supple silk velvet with abstract variations on the Chinese fret pattern in the bright, penetrating colors typical of French art of the time [fig. 169].

Egyptian, Indian, and Persian motifs also appear as decorative elements among the Tirocchi textiles, reflecting an interest in the art of these nations that extends back at least to the early nineteenth century. The arts of Egypt in particular were an important influence on the early nineteenth-century Empire style after Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in the 1790s, but Persian designs were also part of this vocabulary. Increasingly, Indian elements such as "paisley" patterns came into French design after Napoleon presented his wife Josephine with Kashmir shawls that he had obtained in Egypt. French artists of the early twentieth century looked upon the Empire style as the last great truly French style, and, like couturier Paul Poiret, appropriated it for their own use. The taste for things Egyptian was given further impetus by the discovery and opening in 1922 of the tomb of King Tutankhamen with its rich cache of objects. By the mid-1920s, "Egyptomania" was in full swing. A silk border print in the Tirocchi collection imitates the wall painting, architectural ornament, and decorative art of ancient Egypt with its linear vertical arrangements of plant elements [fig. 170]. Scarabs (ancient "good-luck" charms in the form of dung beetles) are common among the dress trims found in the Tirocchi shop, sometimes made of paste to be stitched at necklines, formed as belt buckles, or rendered in beading on fabric patches to be sewn down as decorative devices [fig. 171].