Textile designer Varuna Anand says that the hand woven and embroidered Pashmina elevates these pieces from fabric to fine art
What is the connection between Turkistan and a Himalayan mountain goat? Bizarre as that question may appear, it is not. One only has to consider the legend of Pashmina — the finest of chasmere wool — to know why.
Pashmina was first woven into fiber from the inner coat of the Changthangi or Pashmina goat (capra hircus) by Nitghz Beg, a weaver from the Kazakh city, who was brought to Kashmir by Sultan Zayn-Al-Abidin centuries ago. And it is to this master weaver that Pashmina craftsmen pay obeisance to even today.
"Even spinning the Pashmina yarn, which is six times finer than human hair, is a process done by hand as it requires much skill," says textile designer Varuna Anand, who sells Pashmina shawls under the brand The Splendor of Kashmir.
Anand was captivated by the sheer beauty and exquisiteness of Pashmina shawls soon after she married Parveen Anand and moved from Delhi to Jammu. "My mother had given me some shawls for the winters. When I saw the shawls that my mother-in-law and others in Kashmir possessed, it was only then that I realised what Pashmina truly is," recalls Anand, who then started collecting these shawls. "The beauty of the Pashmina shawl lies not only in the fine fabric but also in the fine, traditional, hand-embroidery that goes into making one. Each piece is as good as any other work of art."
In 2011, the couple's passion for Pashmina prompted them to start The Splendor of Kashmir, through which they marketed and retailed finely woven and embroidered shawls. "We started with Delhi but soon had clients across India, including in Chennai," says Anand. "In Chennai, there is no need for shawls, but people realise the value of this art and recognise the skilled workmanship that goes into it."
Whether woven with patterns or embroidered, it takes between nine to 12 months for a crafstman to create one Pashmina shawl. "While the technique is traditional, we innovate in terms of the colour palette. So while most Pashmina shawls are in earthy, grey tones, we've introduced vegetable dyes to have a vibrant colour palette for the woven Jamewar shawls," informs Anand. "The embroidered shawls, on the other hand, retain the traditional motifs but we've added colour to the base shawl and in the threads."
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