Pashmina shawl Pashmina shawl Pashmina shawl Pashmina shawl

Pashmina refers to a type of

cashmere wool and
textiles
made from it. The name comes from Pashmineh, made from

Persian pashm (= "wool"). This wool comes from a special breed of
goat indigenous to
high altitudes of the
Himalayan
mountains. The special goat's fleece has been used for thousands of years to
make high-quality shawls that also bear the same name. The Himalayan Mountain
goat, Capra hircus, sheds its winter coat every spring and the fleece is
caught on thorn bushes. One goat sheds approximately 3-8 ounces of the
fiber. Villages
would scour the mountainside for the finest fleece to be used.
Cashmere
shawls have been manufactured in
Kashmir and
Nepal for
thousands of years, but the Indians never called them "pashmina". They were
popularly called Kashmiri wool shawls. The test for a quality pashmina has been
warmth, feel and the passing of the shawl through a wedding ring.

Pashmina is an indigenous Nepali word which only became popular after the
so-named shawls, woven in Nepal, started being popular in the west. What are
commonly thought of as pashminas have their origin in Nepal, where the people
have a cultural heritage of hand-weaving pashmina shawls with the well-known
fringing and hand dyeing.

A pashmina shawl
can range in cost from as little as about $35US for a pure pashmina
scarf or up to
hundreds 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-1990's resulted in
high demand for pashminas, so demand exceeded supply.

To meet the demands of cashmere lovers, the goats are now commercially reared
in the Gobi Desert
area in Inner and Outer
Mongolia.
The region has identical harsh weather conditions to those of the Himalayan
region, and is thereby apt for the goats to grow this inner wool, but also has
acres of grazing ground to produce cashmere economically and commercially.
During spring (Molting Season), the goats shed this inner wool, which they
develop all over again during the course of the winter. The inner wool is
collected, sheared and spun to produce cashmere. The quality is just as high,
while the costs have become more reasonable as a result.

Pashmina accessories are available in a range of sizes, from "scarf" (12" x
60") to "wrap" or "stole"
(28" x 80") to fullsize shawl (36" x 80"). Pure pashmina is a rather gauzy, open
weave, as the wool 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.

When pashmina shawls rose into fashion prominence during the mid 90’s, they
were marketed dubiously. Cashmere used for pashmina shawls was claimed to be of
a superior quality attributable to the enhanced sheen and softness that the
fabric (cashmere blended with silk) encompassed. In the consuming markets,
pashmina shawls were again defined as a shawl/wrap with cashmere and silk,
notwithstanding the actual meaning of pashmina - which is technically an
accessory of pure pashmina and not the blend. Following up, some unscrupulous
companies marketed the man-made fabric
viscose as "pashmina"
with deceptive marketing statements as "authentic viscose pashmina". These are
often sold for a very low price, leaving the buyer to decide whether it is
authenticity, quality, or price that motivates their purchase.