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Kashmiri Shawls
- Shawls
- Kashmiri Shawls
Evoke the allure of royalty as you drape yourself in the regal motifs and intricate designs.
What has been the most prized attire for the popular and the royal across the world for the past 300 years?
From Joséphine Bonaparte to Muhammad bin Salman, Michelle Obama to Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie to Julia Roberts, the British, French, American, Russian, German, and Swedish aristocracy all donned Kashmiri shawls.
With a history of over 1400 years, Kashmiri crafts due to their timeliness and regale nature as an accessory, have reached distant places and become famous all over the world.
European women in particular had a romantic fling with Kashmir shawls and the mystic of the East. Such was the lure of Kashmiri shawls that when European kings, adventurers, and explorers went away on epic journeys across the orient, they would return with one gift – a Kashmir shawl – that came from a place rich in history, culture, and artistic superiority.
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Wearing Kashmiri Pashmina, Shamina, and Kani Shawls or even a dress with beautiful and timeless Kashmiri motif embroidery, elites of European royalty dominated high fashion, taste, and class.
The reach and timeliness of Kashmiri shawls though are not limited to Europe and the 19th and 20th centuries. According to Iranian historian Zain-ul-Abideen Rahinuma, Khadija bint Khuwaylid (RA) brought a Kashmiri shawl in her trousseau with her when she married Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the year 595 AD. Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife Josephine owned 60 Kashmiri shawls. The Ain-i-Akbari records that Emperor Akbar was a passionate collector of Kani shawls.
At the Weaving Art Museum, a newspaper notice from 1873 to American buyers in Paris lists the price range for Kashmiri shawls to be 2000 to 5000 Francs. It is when the per capita income of an Indian was Rs 30. In other terms, the Kashmiri shawl was worth 1766 times the per capita income of an Indian. By that comparison, a Kashmiri shawl today should be worth a mind boggling Rs 15.30 crore!
Apart from Pashmina shawls, Kashmir is known for Kani shawls that are woven with small needles of wood called ‘Kanis’. Colourful weft thread is wound around Kanis to create magical patterns over a shawl. A group of artisans spends months weaving delicate Pashmina yarn with hundreds of spools or Kani that come together to form delightful patterns of flowers, leaves, and birds on the finest of shawls. Kashmir is the only place in the world where these shawls are made.
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