Pashmina shawl

Pashmina refers to a type of fine cashmere wool and the textiles made from it.The name comes from Pashmineh, made from Persian pashm (= "wool"). This wool comes from changthangi or pashmina goat, which is a special breed of goat indigenous to high altitudes of the Himalayas. The wool has been used for thousands of years to make high-quality shawls that also bear the same name.

Pashmina is an Urdu and Persian word which only became popular after the so-named shawls, woven in Kashmir, started being popular in the west. Pashmina shawls were originally shawls hand spun, woven and embroidered in Kashmir, and made from fine cashmere fiber.

Pashmina accessories are available in a range of sizes:

"scarf" (12" x 60")

"wrap" or "stole" (28" x 80")

full sized shawl (36" x 80")

Pure pashmina is a rather gauzy, open weave, as the fiber cannot tolerate high tension.

The most popular pashmina fabric is a 70% pashmina/30% silk blend, but 50/50 is also common. The 70/30 is tightly woven, has an elegant sheen and drapes nicely, but is still quite soft and light-weight.

A pashmina shawl can range in cost from as little as about $35US for a pure pashmina scarf or up to thousands of $US for a super high-quality pure pashmina shawl. They are known for their softness and warmth.

A craze for pashminas in the mid-1990s resulted in high demand for pashminas, so demand exceeded supply.

When pashmina shawls rose into fashion prominence during the mid-'90s, they were marketed dubiously. Cashmere used for pashmina shawls was claimed to be of a superior quality, which was really due to the enhanced sheen and softness that the fabric (cashmere blended with silk) had. In the consuming markets, pashmina shawls were redefined as a shawl/wrap with cashmere and silk, notwithstanding the actual meaning of pashmina. Some shawls marketed as pashmina shawls contain wool, while other unscrupulous companies marketed the man-made fabric viscose as "pashmina" with deceptive marketing statements as "authentic viscose pashmina".