Having a real Pashmina is a dream for a large number of individuals. Women, especially those who are true patrons of the art and are inclined toward handloom products, truly cherish Pashmina, especially the shawls. The reason for this inclination is the making of shawls from Cashmere wool. The way they look and feel as final products is simply marvelous. With the onset of the winter season, Pashmina becomes the most sought for belonging in every woman’s wardrobe. However owing to its high price and a large number of duplicate products in the market (which one fails to know about), the task is challenging. So today, we decided to enlighten the true admirers about real Pashmina, besides the repercussions of buying a fake Pashmina. But first, we should know what Pashmina is, and how shawls/scarves/apparel is made.
What is real Pashmina?
Pashmina is the fine art of converting Cashmere wool into luxury wraps and apparel. Real Pashmina, wraps or apparel, come from Cashmere wool that is acquired from Cashmere goats. Cashmere goats are found in high altitudes of Asia, and hence countries like Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and more. The finest Cashmere comes from Ladakh, North India, where Cashmere goats are found over 15000 feet above sea level. It is these rare and exotic goats that produce Cashmere wool as down fibre. This is manually acquired to produce shawls/scarves and apparel.
The making of products from raw Cashmere wool is a huge task and at times takes years to complete.
How is it made?
Real Pashmina shawls/scarves or apparel are handcrafted traditionally. To start with, raw Cashmere is manually acquired by the local herders. It is Spring time which is the moulting season for the Cashmere goat. The goat sheds its wool in these months of April-May. The wool grows on the underbelly, ears, neck, and a few more parts of the goat’s body. This is collected in the Spring and summer season and sent for processing. Processing takes part in a number of steps. In fact, one shawl passes through hundreds of hands before it is complete.
Post the acquisition of raw Cashmere, it is spun on a spinning wheel. This transforms lumps of wool into fine yarn. This yarn is as fine as 12-16 microns in diameter. The fineness of Cashmere wool gives the final products a feathery lightweight yet immense warmth. Spun yarn is now handed over to weavers, who are ready with a traditional hand loom to weave yarn into fabric.
Spun yarn is mounted on a handloom where it manually gets woven into delicate and fine shawls, scarves, stoles, and wraps. It takes a total of 3-4 days to hand weave Cashmere yarn to make luxury shawls. Post weaving, shawls can be embroidered or dyed as per customer requirements.
What is fake Pashmina?
Owing to immense admiration and demand from people all over the world for Pashmina shawls, especially those produced in Kashmir, a large number of traders produced fake shawls. Fake shawls were either sheep wool shawls treated with fabric softeners, or else Cashmere was mixed with nylon or silk and passed through machines to produce a shawl in less time. Fake shawls spread the markets more than real shawls and customers never realized they were cheated until the shawls started withering in a few years. On the contrary real Pashmina shawls lasted for a few decades. This was an alarming sign, and soon customers lost trust in the entire art. Women stopped buying Pashmina shawls from Kashmir, which led to an economic downfall for the locals.
Aftermath
As soon as customers stopped buying shawls from Kashmir, local artisans, who handcrafted real Pashmina shawls suffered the most. Their families were deprived of very basic needs because all they depended upon was this art. But now, no one asked for Pashmina shawls and the artisans either shifted to other jobs or simply sold their shawls for less.
Soon the true patrons of the unique art of Pashmina realized that this was a big loss for the local economy, as well as the art form itself. A few of these revived the real Pashmina industry and took smaller steps till the real art once again started flourishing.
Tests to find out a real Pashmina
If in case you own a Pashmina and want to test if it is the real or a fake piece, here are a few at-home tests to conduct:
The Burn Test: Cut out a fringe from your shawl and burn it carefully. If it gives out the odour of burnt hair, there are high chance that this is a real Pashmina.
Matte and Powdery: Post burning, this fringe should have a matte look and should become powder if crushed. Real Pashmina is not shiny.
An Uneven Weave: An uneven weave means you are holding a real Pashmina. It is the machine that makes a regular weave.
Rubbing the scarf: Rub the corner of your scarf against itself. If it produces sparks, it might be a fake piece. Nylon and synthetic products produce static electricity
An Artificial Shine: Real Pashmina won't give a shimmery or glittery appearance. Unless of course, there is an added silk or nylon fibre to it.
Pilling much: Real Pashmina comes from animal fibre after all. As such, it would definitely grow some tiny balls over its surface.
Also read: HOW DO YOU CARE FOR A PASHMINA SHAWL?