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- Pashmina Cashmere are the best |
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Kashmiri Shawls - Pashmina Cashmere from the land of
Kashmir are handmade and the very best
The best Kashmiri shawls
produced today are made from
the soft, downy undercoat
that grows primarily on the
neck and belly of the
Himalayan mountain goat,
Capra hircus. Although fine
wool of various grades is
commonly marketed in the
West as "cashmere," the name
that Kashmiris themselves
give to the fiber from Capra
hircus is pashm, which is
the Persian word for "wool."
"Pashmina" is pashm in its
woven form, the highest
quality of cashmere, and
Capra hircus is often
referred to as the "pashmina
goat."
Pashm has a special luster
due to its long, fine
fibers, which are as thin as
12 microns; by contrast, the
fibers from premium sheep's
wool, such as Merino
Extrafine, are 23 microns
thick, and human hair ranges
up to 200 microns thickness.
Thus pashmina is
exceptionally light, soft
and warm, and feels
luxurious against the skin.
The natural colors of the
fleece range from white to
gray, red, brown and black.
The growth of the fine, warm
pashm is an adaptive
response to the harshly
windswept terrain and winter
temperatures that fall as
low as minus 30 degrees
Centigrade (-22° F).
What makes the Kashmiri
shawls ,kashmir Pashmina or cashmere pashmina superior is not only
the fineness of the
individual pashm fibers, but
also meticulous cleaning,
sorting, dehairing and hand
spinning. These are all
manual skills, perfected by
Kashmiri women and passed
down through generations
since the late 16th century,
the time when the Mughal
emperors began to encourage
the shawl industry.
The beautiful vale of
Kashmir has always been
famed for its craftsmanship.
The wearing of tapestry
shawls was first introduced
into the valley from
Turkistan by Zain-Ul-Abdin,
the ruler of Kashmir, in the
15th century. Production
benefited from the patronage
of the Mughal rulers like
Akbar and his successors,
who wore these shawls, and
also because of patronage of
local government.
The skill, experience and
time it takes to produce
top-quality pashmina are
reasons for its high cost.
Workers harvest the soft
undercoat of the upper
Himalayan mountain goats
during the moulting season
when they shed their longer
winter coats. Weavers
separate the soft and much
shorter undercoat for
quality, comb it and hand
spin it with traditional
spinning wheels. The
weaving, again done by hand,
is on traditional looms. A
high quality pashmina can
take up to three days to
complete because of the
delicate nature of the fine
threads used to create the
woven material.
Hand embroidered in typical
Kashmiri stitch, which is so
famous all over the world.
One cannot even imagine the
amount of labor gone into it
in embroidering this lovely
piece, truly a masterpiece,
one would cherish
forever.The embroidery is so
fine and intricate, it takes
months to embroider a fine
pattern like this. Graceful
and eye-catching, this
luxurious shawl is
hand-woven in semi pashmina
in the valley of Kashmir, in
India, and sells at very
steep prices even in India.
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