Shawls are worn and used as a warm protective garment all over the northern states today.
Kashmir has become synonymous with shawls all over the world. It is a work of delicacy,
tremendous concentration and too much of patience. The decoration is formed by weft
threads interlocked where the colors change, the weavers passing them between the warps
using bobbins around, which the variously colored threads are wound. The raw material for
pashmina is brought from and taken to for hand-weaving followed by embroidery and
finishing.
Kashmiri shawls are rare and unique, due to its peculiar charm that is derived from the
symphony of color schemes depicting architectural and mythological figures interwoven with
landscape designs. There are three fibres from which Kashmiri shawls are made – wool,
pashmina and shahtoosh. The prices of the three cannot be compared – woollen shawls being
within reach of the most modest budget, and shahtoosh being a one-in-a-lifetime purchase.
Woollen shawls are popular because of the embroidery worked on them, which is unique to
Kashmir. Both embroidery and the type of wool used bring about differences in the price.
Wool woven in Kashmir is known as raffle .
A pashmina shawls
is simply a piece of garment that is worn over one’s shoulder to serve three basic
purposes. These purposes include protection from extreme temperatures and other
environmental elements, enhancement to a particular costume, and gives meaning to certain
symbolic rituals. Given these functionality, they are definitely very useful pieces of
garment.
Traditionally made by the artisans of Kashmir in India for the longest time being, each of
the individual fibers for these shawls has been hand spun and woven by hand to make them
as personalized as possible. The artisan’s ingenuity and creativity is reflected in the
intricate designs.
The raw material upon which the shawl was made is from a distinctive specie of mountain
goat that can only be found in the Himalayan regions of India, Persia, and China. These
then were primarily intended to keep the bodies warm in these otherwise cold and
unforgiving regions. Only a few, mostly those in the royalty, ever used these as a fashion
accessory or as a symbol in some ritual.
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