NEW DELHI— The Himalayan mountains are a long way from the world's fashion capitols, but this remote region at the top of the world is the source of one of this season's best-selling accessories. Brilliantly colored, featherweight pashmina shawls have become a fashion sensation, combining today's essential elements of style: comfort and luxury.
While retailers struggle to keep these elegant shawls in stock, Nepalese weavers are discovering that they have a fast-growing international market for their traditional handicraft.
Pashmina, derived from the Persian word for wool, is the fabric, which we now call "cashmere." The cashmere fibers come from the silky fleece of changra goats, which live at altitudes of 4,000 to 5,000 meters in the remote Changthang area of the Ladakh region in India's Jammu and Kashmir State. One goat produces a scant 80 to 100 grams of wool fiber, with the finest pashminas requiring the annual growth of three goats to weave one shawl.
Despite popular rumors, these special goats are not slaughtered for the sake of harvesting their hair. On the contrary, said Veena Sikri, Indian consulate general in Hong Kong, "if the farmers killed these goats, they would lose their source of income."
Using age-old Nepalese methods, artisans comb and sort the sheered hair, selecting the finest ones for weaving into scarves and shawls. Since pure pashmina is almost weightless, silk is usually added in order to give the fabric some body.
Pashmina weaving began about 400 years ago in the Kashmir Valley and has since been considered India's "fabric of royals" with maharajas favoring it for blankets, throws, bedcovers and shawls. Kashmir handspun, handwoven shawls have inspired the imagination of art collectors around the world.
In 1796, Abdullah Khan, the Afghan governor of Kashmir, gave an exquisite pashmina shawl to Sayyid Yahya, a guest from Baghdad, who in turn presented it to the khedive of Egypt. So impressed was the khedive with this exotic work of art that he gave it to Napoleon Bonaparte, who presented it to the future empress Josephine.
From that time on, pashmina has enraptured Westerners, with European royalty and wealthy women including these shawls as an essential part of their wardrobes.
When France, the biggest buyer of pashmina, lost the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war, the trade in cashmere fabrics came to a halt. A famine in 1878-79 further halted production. For more than a century, delicate pashmina existed only as museum artifacts and collectors' items. As designers glanced east in search of new textiles and accessories, women of style rediscovered these sumptuous wovens and brought them again to fashion's forefront.
A passion for India's cultural arts first sparked Bhagwanti Mohan's interest in pashmina shawls. What started off as a hobby has turned into an impressive business supplying fashionable retailers with a collection of stunning shawls. Her Talena label includes not only the well-known solid colors with simple tassel fringe borders, but also a new collection that incorporates classic Western patterns, such as checks and stripes, to provide a fashion edge.
Recognizing the current blending of Eastern and Western influences, she added evening shawls embellished with sequins and embroidery in traditional Indian motifs. Noting the growing popularity of Indian shawls, Mohan has introduced a new range of incredibly soft and light pure cashmere shawls as well as traditional Jamavars that feature woven paisley designs.
"Shawls add femininity and softness to today's tailored clothing," said Mohan. "They offer the same allure as the traditional Indian sari. The wrapping and draping is very sexy."
Echoing the buzzwords that define trend directions for the next millennium, pashmina shawls are warm, soft, protective and feminine — with an understated element of luxury.
All phases of pashmina production, from dehairing, sorting, spinning, weaving, dyeing and embroidery are done by hand, limiting the supply of these colorful shawls. As demand outpaces supply, a new supply of imitation pashminas has come into the market.
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UNDERSTANDING the implication of fakes and wanting to nip the problem in the bud, the Jammu and Kashmir State Handloom Development Corporation commissioned a research survey to study the problems faced by the industry. "Now even non-pashmina is being retailed as pashmina," says M. H. Malik, assistant general manager of the corporation. "I wonder how long the innocent consumer can be mislead?" he asked.
In order to preserve the quality of the textile and maintain international standards, the state corporation is establishing a quality mark for pashmina that will identify items that use the genuine fiber much like the COTTON USA and Woolmarks do for their fibers.
R. JANE SINGER is publisher of Inside Fashion, an international newspaper for the fashion industry.