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Pashmina (, ) refers to, depending on the source, the
cashmere wool Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, Changthangi, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely ...
of the
Changthangi The Changthangi or Changpa is a list of goat breeds, breed of cashmere goat native to the high plateaus of Ladakh in North India, northern India. It is closely associated with the Nomad, nomadic Changpa people of the Changthang plateau. It ma ...
cashmere goat A cashmere goat is a type of goat that produces cashmere wool, the goat's fine, soft, downy, winter undercoat, in commercial quality and quantity. This undercoat grows as the days get shorter and is associated with an outer coat of coarse hair, w ...
,Janet Rizvi: ''Pashmina: The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond''. Marg Foundation, 2009. ISBN 978-8185026909. fine
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
i cashmere wool,Robert R. Franck: ''Silk, Mohair, Cashmere and Other Luxury Fibres''. Volume 19 of ''Woodhead Publishing Series in Textiles'', Elsevier Science, 2001. ISBN 978-1855735408. p. 142. or any cashmere wool. The word ''pashm'' means "wool" in Persian, but in
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
, ''pashm'' referred to the raw unspun wool of domesticated Changthangi
goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
s. In common parlance today, ''pashmina'' may refer either to the material or to the variant of the
Kashmir shawl The Kashmir shawl, the predecessor of the contemporary ''cashmere shawl'', is a type of shawl identified by its distinctive Kashmiri weave and for being made of fine '' shahtoosh'' or '' pashmina'' wool. Contemporary variants include the ''pashm ...
that is made from it. Both cashmere and pashmina come from the same goat but typical cashmere ranges from 12 to 21 microns in diameter, whereas ''pashmina'' can also refer to a cashmere and
silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...
blend (70% / 30%) that has a typical fiber range from 12 to 16 microns.


History

Samples of wool fibres recovered from corroded copper artifacts from
Harappa Harappa () is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal, that takes its name from a modern village near the former course of the Ravi River, which now runs to the north. Harappa is the type site of the Bronze Age Indus ...
dating back to the
Indus Valley Civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the Northwestern South Asia, northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 Common Era, BCE to 1300 BCE, and in i ...
are believed to be Pashmina and
Shahtoosh Shahtoosh (from Persian شاهتوش 'king of wools'), also known as Shatoush, is a wool obtained from the fur of the chiru (''Pantholops hodgsonii'', also called Tibetan antelope). Also, shawls made from the wool of the chiru are called shaht ...
. The material gained prominence through its use in the Kashmir shawl. In Mughal times, this was used as an indicator of rank and nobility. In 1526,
Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...
(1483–1530) founded the
Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...
in India, and established the practice of giving
khalat A khalat (Persian: خلعت, from ) is a loose, long-sleeved outer silk or cotton robe common in Central Asia and South Asia and worn both by men and women, although in differing styles. History Historically, richly adorned khalats have been ...
or "robes of honor", typically made of expensive fabric, to members of their ''durbar'' to indicate high service, great achievement, or royal favor. In his time, the Mughal khalat was a set of clothes, which could include a turban, long coat, gown, fitted jacket, sash, shawl, trousers, shirt, and scarf. One or all of these could be made of ''pashmina'' and embroidered in gold cloth. In 1568, Kashmir was conquered by Babur's grandson
Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...
. In Akbar's time, a pair of ''pashmina'' shawls was an expected part of ''khil'at'' ceremonies. From the 16th to the early 20th centuries, the
Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...
,
Zand Zand may refer to: * Zend, a class of exegetical commentaries on Zoroastrian scripture * Zand District, an administrative subdivision of Iran * Zand Boulevard, in Shiraz, Iran * Z And, a variable star As a tribal/clan and dynastic name * Zand trib ...
, and
Qajar The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin,Cyrus Ghani. ''Iran an ...
emperors of Iran also wore ''pashmina'' and gifted Kashmir shawls as ''khilat'' within their political and religious practices. Pashmina blankets were also part of a wealthy woman's dowry in India, Pakistan and Nepal. In nineteenth-century English literature Kashmiri shawls were coded as women's luxuries. They acquired the status of heirlooms, worn by a girl on her marriage and coming-of-age. They were inherited rather than purchased. Since English law restricted women's abilities to inherit land, the Kashmir shawl served as an item of high exchange value that a woman could carry. In France, the ''pashmina'' Kashmir shawl gained status as a fashion icon through Empress
Joséphine de Beauharnais Joséphine Bonaparte (, born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 Janua ...
' enthusiastic use. These shawls suited the French well, providing the needed warmth, while adding visual interest to white French gowns through the traditional teardrop ''buta'' pattern and discreet floral motifs. The shawl became a symbol of French
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
status from the
Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...
(1815–48) through the
Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...
(1852–70). As a class marker, it fulfilled 19th century French tastes because it looked rich, had extensive ornamentation, artistic qualities, and was made of expensive raw materials.


Production

Goats used for pashmina shed their winter coat every spring. One goat sheds approximately of the
fibre Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorp ...
. In the spring (the moulting season), the goats naturally shed their undercoat, which regrows in winter. This undercoat is collected by combing the goat, not by shearing, as in other fine wools. A traditional producer of pashmina wool in the
Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...
region of the
Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...
are a people known as the
Changpa The Changpa, or Champa, are a semi-nomadic Tibetan people found mainly in the Changtang in Ladakh, India. A smaller number resides in the western regions of the Tibet Autonomous Region and were partially relocated for the establishment of t ...
. These are a nomadic people and inhabit the Changthang plateau of
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
, which has a minimum altitude of above sea level and a winter temperature which can drop to The Changpa rear sheep in these harsh climates for meat, and pashmina goats for wool. Raw pashmina is exported to Kashmir. All steps, from combing (removing impurities and guard hair, and aligning fibers) and spinning, to weaving and finishing, are traditionally carried out by hand by specialized craftsmen and women. The major center of pashmina fabric production is in the old district of the city of
Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...
. The approximate time put into producing a single traditional pashmina stole (70x200cm) is 180 hours. China accounts for 70% of the world's cashmere production, Mongolia 20%, and the remaining 10% of production is in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, the United States, the Central Asian republics and elsewhere. Only a small percentage of this production is the ultra-fine cashmere known as pashmina.


Products

Pashmina accessories are renowned for their softness and warmth. They are produced in a range of sizes, from "
scarf A scarf (: scarves or scarfs) is a long piece of fabric that is worn on or around the neck, shoulders, or head. A scarf is used for warmth, sun protection, cleanliness, fashion, religious reasons, or to show support for a sports club or team. ...
" 30 in x 80 in (70 cm x 200 cm) to full- sized
shawl A shawl (from ''shāl'') is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular piece of Textile, cloth, but can also be Square (geometry), square or tr ...
measuring 40 in x 80 in (100 cm x 200 cm), large shawls measuring 45 in x 90 in (114 cm x 228 cm), and XL shawls measuring 54 in x 108 in (137 cm x 274 cm). A craze for pashmina shawls, known as '' shahmina'' in Kashmir, in the mid-1990s resulted in high demand for the raw material, so demand exceeded supply. When these shawls rose into fashion prominence during the era, they were marketed dubiously. In the consumer markets, pashmina shawls have been redefined as a shawl/wrap with cashmere and cashmere/silk, notwithstanding the actual meaning of pashmina. Some shawls marketed as pashmina shawls contain (sheep) wool, while other unscrupulous companies marketed artificial fabrics such as
viscose Rayon, also called viscose and commercialised in some countries as sabra silk or cactus silk, is a semi-synthetic fiber made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecula ...
and others as "pashmina" with deceptive marketing statements such as "authentic viscose pashmina". The word "pashmina" is not a labelling term recognized by law in the United States where it is considered another term for cashmere. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:
Some manufacturers use the term pashmina to describe an ultra fine cashmere fiber; others use the term to describe a blend of cashmere and silk. The FTC encourages manufacturers and sellers of products described as pashmina to explain to consumers, on a hangtag, for example, what they mean by the term.

As with all other wool products, the fiber content of a shawl, scarf or other item marketed as pashmina must be accurately disclosed. For example, a blend of cashmere and silk might be labeled 50% Cashmere, 50% Silk or 70% Cashmere, 30% Silk, depending upon the actual cashmere and silk content. If the item contains only cashmere, it should be labeled 100% Pashmina or All Cashmere by the Wool Act or regulations. The earliest shawls had no particular motifs but they had striped in various colours. As time passed, the weavers derived inspiration from nature. Many floral motifs emerged. There is a strong Persian influence in the designs. There are few remnants of the mid 19th century European influence as well.  Chand-dar or Moon shawl had a medallion in the center and quarters in the corner. The patterns almost covered the ground colour.   Various butis and badam shapes are the popular motifs.


References

{{fibers Culture of Jammu and Kashmir Economy of Jammu and Kashmir Indian clothing Knitted fabrics Knitted garments Scarves Geographical indications in Jammu and Kashmir Indian shawls and wraps Joséphine de Beauharnais