Pashmina refers to a type of cashmere wool and textiles made from it. The name comes from
Pashmineh, made from Persianpashm (= "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 stack of
pashmina fabric
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 grow all over again during the course
of the winter. The inner wool is collected 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.
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.
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.