A shawl is a simple item of clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square

Square (geometry)

In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...

 piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape. Other shapes include oblong

Rectangle

In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...

 shawls.

History

Kashmir Textiles-Shawls, Namdas, Gubbas

Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

, India's northern most state was the gateway into India. Kashmir was a pivotal point through which the wealth, knowledge, and products of ancient India passed to the world perhaps the most widely known woven textiles are the famed Kashmir shawls. The Kanikar, for instance, has intricately woven designs that are formalized imitations of Nature. The Chenar leaf (plane tree leaf), apple and cherry blossoms, the rose and tulip, the almond and pear, the nightingale, they are done in deep mellow tones of maroon, dark red, gold yellow and browns. Yet another type of Kashmir shawl is the Jamiavr, which is a brocaded woolen fabric sometimes in pure wool and sometimes with a little cotton added. The floral designing appears like heavy close embroidery-like weave in dull silk or soft pashmina wool, and usually comprises small or large flowers delicately sprayed and combined; some shawls have net-like patterns with floral ensemble motifs in them. Still another type of Kashmir shawl is the Dourukha, a woven shawl that is so done as to produce the same effect on both sides. This is a unique piece of craftsmanship, in which a multi-coloured pattern scheme is woven all over the surface, and after the shawl is completed, the Rafugar or expert embroiderer works the outlines of the motifs in darker shades to bring into relief the beauty of design. This attractive mode of craftsmanship not only produces a shawl, which is reversible because of the perfect workmanship on both sides, but it combines the crafts of both weave and embroidery.

The most expensive shawls, called Shatoosh, are made from the beard hairs of the wild Ibex and are so fine that a whole shawl can be pulled through a small finger ring.

The Persian device, naksha, like the Jacquard loom

Jacquard loom

The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade, damask and matelasse. The loom is controlled by punched cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row...

 invented centuries later, enabled Indian weavers to create sinuous floral patterns and creeper designs in brocade to rival any painted by a brush. The Kashmir shawl that evolved from this expertise, in its heyday had greater fame than any other Indian textile. Always a luxury commodity, the intricate, tapestry-woven, fine wool shawl had become a fashionable wrap for the ladies of the English and French elite by the 18th century. The supply fell short of demand and manufacturers pressed to produce more, created convincing embroidered versions of the woven shawls that could be produced in half the time. As early as 1803 Kashmiri needlework production was established to increase and hasten output of these shawls, which had been imitated in England since 1784 and even in France. By 1870, the advent of the Jacquard loom in Europe destroyed the exclusivity of the original Kashmir shawl, which began to be produced in Paisley, England. Even the characteristic Kashmiri motif, the mango-shaped, began to be known simply as the paisley.

The paisley motif is so ubiquitous to Indian fabrics that it is hard to imagine that it is only about 250 years old. It evolved from l7th- century floral and tree-of-life designs that were created in expensive, tapestry-woven Mughal textiles. Early designs depicted single plants with large flowers and thin wavy stems, small leaves and roots. As the designs became denser over time, more flowers and leaves were compacted within the shape of the tree, or issuing from vases or a pair of leaves. By the late 18th century, the archetypal curved point at the top of an elliptical outline had evolved. The elaborate paisley created on Kashmir shawls became the vogue in Europe for over a century, and it was imitations of these shawls woven in factories at Paisley, Scotland, that gave it the name paisley still commonly used in the United States and Europe. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the paisley became an important motif in a wide range of Indian textiles, perhaps because it was associated with the Mughal court. It also caught the attention of poorer and non-Muslim Indians because it resembles a mango. Rural Indians called an aam or mango, a symbol of fertility.
The first shawls, or "shals", were used in Assyrian times, later it went into wide spread in the Middle East. Shawls were also part of the traditional male costume in Kashmir

Kashmir

Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

, which was probably introduced via assimilation to Persian culture. They were woven in extremely fine woollen twill, some such as the Orenberg shawl, were even said to be so fine as to fit through a ring. They could be in one colour only, woven in different colours (called tilikar), ornately woven

Woven

A woven is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions , unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless measures are taken to counter this, such as the use of pinking shears or hemming.Woven fabrics are worked on a loom and made of many...

 or embroidered

Embroidery

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....

 (called ameli).

Kashmiri shawls were high-fashion garments in Western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

 in the early- to mid-19th century. Imitation Kashmiri shawls woven in Paisley, Renfrewshire are the origin of the name of the traditional paisley pattern. Shawls were also manufactured in the city of Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 from the late 18th century (and some two decades before Paisley) until about the 1870s.

Silk shawls with fringes, made in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, were available by the first decade of the 19th century. Ones with embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....

 and fringes were available in Europe and the Americas by 1820. These were called China crepe shawls, China shawls, and in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 "mantones de Manila" because they were shipped to Spain from China via the port of Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

. The importance of these shawls in fashionable women's wardrobes declined between 1865 and 1870 in Western culture. However, they became part of folk dress in a number of places including Germany, the Near East, various parts of Latin America, and Spain where they became a part of Romani dress especially in Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

 and Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

. These embroidered shawls were revived in the 1920s under the name Spanish shawls, a named derived from their use as part of the dress of Spanish Romanis, also known as "gitanas

Gitanas

Gitanas is a Mexican telenovela which aired in 2004. It was largely based on the Chilean telenovela Romané, and was co-produced by the Mexican company Argos Comunicación and Telemundo. It aired at 9PM EST and PST from late 2004 until mid-2005...

". Their use as part of the costume of the lead in the opera Carmen

Carmen

Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...

 contributed to the association of the shawls with Spain rather than China.

Some cultures incorporate shawls of various types into their national folk dress

National costume

Folk costume expresses an identity through costume which usually to a geographic area or a period of time in history, but can also indicate social, marital and/or religious status...

, mainly because shawls were much more commonly used in earlier times.

Uses

Shawls are used in order to keep warm, to complement a costume, and for symbolic reasons. One famous type of shawl is the tallit

Tallit

A tallit pl. tallitot is a Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers on weekdays, Shabbat and holidays...

, worn by Jewish men during prayers and ceremonies. Today, shawls are worn for added warmth (and fashion) at outdoor or indoor evening affairs where the temperature is warm enough for men in suits but not for women in dress

Dress

A dress is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice or with a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment.Dress may also refer to:*Clothing in general*Costume, fancy dress...

es and where a jacket might be inappropriate.

The Kashmir Shawls
Kashmir is the India's northern most state. It was an essential point through which the wealth, knowledge, and products of ancient India passed to the world perhaps the most widely known woven textiles are the well-known Kashmir shawls. The Kashmir shawl that evolved from an expertise had greater fame than any other Indian textile.

Pashmina or Amlikar
The majority of the woollen fabrics of Kashmir, and particularly the best quality shawls, were and are still made of Pashm or Pashmina, which is the wool of the Capra hircus, a species of the wild Asian mountain goat. Hence the shawls came to be called Pashmina. The fine fleece used for the shawls is that which grows under the rough, woolly, outer coat of the animal; that from the under-belly, which is shed on the approach of hot weather. Materials of an inferior grade were of the wool of the wild Himalayan mountain sheep or the Himalayan Ibex. However, the best fleece wool is soft, silky and warm is of the wild goats, and painstakingly gathered from shrubs and rough rocks against which the animals rub off their fleece on the approach of summer. This was undoubtedly the soft fleece wool from which were made the famous and much coveted ‘ring shawls’ in Mughal times. Unfortunately very inferior and second rate wool taken from domesticated sheep and goats provide most of the wool used today on the looms of Kashmir.

The needle-worked Amlikar or Amli, made from Pashmina wool a shawl embroidered almost all over with the needle on a plain woven ground. The colours most commonly seen on pashmina shawls are yellow, white, black, blue, green, purple, crimson and scarlet. The design motif are usually formalised imitations of nature quite often the leaf of the Chenar tree, apple blossoms, the almond, the tulip, and occasionally the fruits of the region, they are always done in rich colours.

The embroidery stitch employed is rather like parallel darning stitch rarely allowed to penetrate the entire fabric.

The outlines of the design are further touched up and emphasized with silk or woollen thread of different colours run round the finer details; the stitch used for this is at an angle overlapping darn stitch, all the stitches used are so minute and fine that individually they can be seen with the unaided eye only with difficulty. When Pashmina wool is used for the embroidery work, it is made to blend so intimately with the texture of the basic shawl material that it would be difficult to insert even a fine needle between the embroidery stitches and the basic fabric.

Do-Shalla
The Emperor Akabar was a great admirer of the shawls of Kashmir it was he who began the fashion of wearing them in duplicate, sewn back to back, so that the under surfaces of the shawls were never seen Do-shalla. During that time the most desired shawls were those worked in gold and silver thread or shawls with border ornamented with fringes of gold, silver and silk thread.

The Do-shala as the name designates, are always sold in pairs there being many varieties of them. In the Khali-matan the central field is quite plain and without any ornamentation. The Char-bagan is made up of four pieces in different colours neatly joined together; the central fluid of the shawl is embellished with a medallion of flowers. However, when the field is ornamented with flowers in the four corners we have the Kunj.

Perhaps the most characteristic of the Kashmir shawls is the one made like patchwork. The patterns are woven on the looms in long strips, about twelve to eighteen inches in length and from half to two inches in width. These design strips, made on very simple and primitive looms, are then cut to the required lengths and very neatly and expertly hand sewn together with almost invisible stitches and finally joined by sewing to a plain central field piece. As a variation, pieces may be separately woven, cut up in various shapes of differing sizes and expertly sewn together and then further elaborated with embroidery but there is a difference between these two types, while the patchwork loom shawls are made up from separate narrow strips, the patchwork embroidered shawls consists of a certain number of irregularly shaped pieces joined together, each one balancing the predominant colour scheme of the shawl.

Nammda and Gubba
The basic material for a gubba is milled blanket dyed in plain colour. Embroidery is bold and vivid in designing and done with woollen or cotton threads. Gubbas have more of a folk flavour blankets cut and patched into geometric patterns, with limited, embroidery on joining and open space. It is more of appliqué work. Colours are bright and attractive. They are cheep and used for dewan covering or floor covering like Namdas.

Costumes of Kashmir

Female costume
Salwar is the main lower garment for the women; it may be fitted or gathered which may be embroidered. The embroidered design is based on the natural beauty of the area. The most widely used pattern is the leaf of the Chinar tree.

The upper garment called a pheran is like a gown which hangs in loose folds and has sleeves. A sleeveless jacket of embroidered velvet of a dark shade is occasionally worn over the gown. The word pheran comes from the Persian word paithar meaning shirt. The pheran has an open collar down the neck with heavy folds. The outfit is completed with a scarf similar to the ordhnai of Rajasthan and Punjab but different in quality and design.

However, it is customary for a bride to wear a veil at her wedding which is elaborately embroidered and adorned with lace. Dresses for Muslim and Hindu brides are the same but head dress shows a slight difference. The women usually wear the traditional costume of Kashmir with slight variations to distinguish themselves form the Brahmins. The Hindu women use a girdle whereas a Muslim woman does not. The Hindu woman wears a round white head dress having embroidery only on the sleeves and around the collar, the Muslim woman wears a high red head dress and a heavily embroidered tunic.

Male costume
Salwar is the lower garment. It is similar to that used by the women. The upper garment is a loose shirt called pheran.

In Kashmir the Hindu and the Muslim man could be easily distinguished by their dress. Hindus wear the tuck of the turban on his right and the Muslim on the left. Hindus fasten their gown on the left and Muslims on the right. Hindus have long narrow sleeves and Muslim have short sleeves.
In olden days, the costume of males consisted of a lower garment and turban called sirasheta.

The shawls made in Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent place among textile products; and it is to them and to their imitations from Western looms that specific importance attaches. The Kashmir shawl is characterized by the elaboration of its design, in which the "cone" pattern is a prominent feature, and by the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth, and enduring qualities of its colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the very fine, soft, short, flossy under-wool, called pashm or pashmina, found on the shawl-goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the elevated regions of Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm, but the finest is a strict monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir. Inferior pashm and Kerman wool — a fine soft Persian sheep's wool — are used for shawl weaving at Amritsar and other places in the Punjab, where colonies of Kashmiri weavers are established. Of shawls, apart from shape and pattern, there are only two principal classes: (1) loom-woven shawls called tiliwalla, tilikar or kani kar — sometimes woven in one piece, but more often in small segments which are. sewn together with such precision that the sewing is quite imperceptible; and (2) embroidered shawls — amlikar — in which over a ground of plain pashmina is worked by needle a minute and elaborate pattern.

Knit shawls

Triangular knit lace shawls are usually knitted from the neck down and may or may not be shaped. In contrast, Faroese lace shawls

Faroese lace shawls

A Faroese shawl is a traditional piece of clothing from the Faroe Islands. The most distinguishing characteristic of Faroese shawls is the center back gusset shaping. Each shawl consists of two triangular side panels, a trapezoid-shaped back gusset, an edge treatment, and usually shoulder shaping...

 are knitted bottom up and contain a centre back gusset

Gusset

In sewing, a gusset is a triangular or rhomboid piece of fabric inserted into a seam to add breadth or reduce stress from tight-fitting clothing...

. Each shawl consists of two triangular side panels, a trapezoid-shaped back gusset, an edge treatment, and usually shoulder shaping.