Emme & Natte
Hantverk från när och fjärran
Kashmir /Pashmina
vad är det?
Varifrån kommer cashmere?
All äkta cashmere kommer från en get som lever högt uppe i Himalayas berg eller i de kalla höglänta slätterna i Mongoliet och inre Mongoliet. Den yttersta pälsen är grov. Om du skulle klappa geten skulle det inte alls kännas lika mjukt som våra tröjor eller pashminasjalar.
Den yttersta pälsen på geten är grov. De tunnaste håren finns i det innersta lagret, vid getens skinn. På sanskrit heter det "pashm", och det är därifrån namnet pashmina kommer. Pashmina används vanligtvis för att beskriva den allra finaste cashmeren, som kommer från hakan och magen på geten.
Fibrerna är otroligt tunna, mellan ca 14-16 mikroner. Ju tunnare fibrerna är desto bättre är kvalitén.
Tyget används vanligtvis för att tillverka pashminasjalar eller kashmirtröjor. För att tillverka en enda kashmirtröja krävs ull från cirka 10 getter. Traditionellt sett bars pashminasjalar av maharadjor i Indien under 1500-talet och blev sedan populär under den engelska kolonialtiden.
Äkta pashmina ska enligt huvudorganet för tillverkare av Kamelhår och Cashmere (The Camel and Cashmere Hair Manufacturers institute) märkas "cashmere" på grund av det utbredda fusket på marknaden där billiga syntetiska fibrer, exempelvis viskos, märks som "pashmina".
For Pakistani women, dupattas are more than a fashion statement
The long scarves that many wear with traditional shalwar kameez outfits are laden with religious and cultural significance. For some it's a sign of Islamic modesty, for others a cumbersome relic.
February 23, 2010|By Mark Magnier
The scarf has served as protest symbol, political must-have and, for some, a burden imposed by Islamic fundamentalists.
Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan — Seeking a competitive edge, fabric designer Vaneeza Ahmad spent hours on the phone to China but couldn't find anyone to make her new line of dupattas, the omnipresent scarves that Pakistani women drape over their arms, head, chest.
China may be the world's factory floor, but its scarf makers aren't equipped for something that can be more than 8 feet long. Ahmad fretted, until, after much wrangling, she found a solution.
"I've located a curtain maker who could do it," she said triumphantly. "They've got the only machines big enough to handle our dupattas."
Essence of femininity, grist for film and literature, political statement, cultural icon, albatross, these few ounces of cotton or silk fabric have woven their way across Pakistan's shoulders, history and fashion runways, morphing from protest symbol to political must-have to sometimes-burdensome accessory demanded by Islamic fundamentalists.
The South Asian dupatta, which lies somewhere between its religious cousins -- the shorter head scarf popular in Turkey and Indonesia and the take-no-prisoners niqab and abaya worn in Saudi Arabia -- is such a fixture of Pakistani culture that many women here say they feel naked without one.
And while it may grow longer or shorter, wider or narrower, plainer or more extravagant with fashion's whims, it's a long-standing fixture in this conservative Islamic country, with a role in bolstering izzat, or modesty and respect. Nearly all Pakistani women wear a dupatta, at least occasionally.
"It has a multitude of uses," said designer Rizwan Beyg, who outfitted the late Princess Diana -- she declined to wear a dupatta with his ensemble -- on one of her visits to Pakistan. "While its main use is to cover the boobs, butt and head, it can also be a sash, even a belt."
The dupatta played a cameo role in the 1947 founding of Pakistan, but its first appearance, some claim, dates back 4,000 years to the Indus Valley civilization, evidenced by sculpture from the period showing high priests apparently wearing dupattas.
As Britain's grip weakened in the 1940s, young Muslim women campaigning for the creation of Pakistan used their dupattas to make a statement. Caught without a green-and-white Muslim League flag, writer Mumtaz Shahnawaz famously whipped off her green dupatta on the roof of the Lahore jail to vent her discontent. Weeks later, 14-year-old Fatima Sughra used hers to replace the Union Jack atop a Punjab government building.
More than anything, the scarf's bit role in history may reflect its being in the right place at the right time.
"The dupatta was a stand-in," said Mohsin Sayeed, a Karachi-based fashion writer. "They weren't going to take off their bras and wave those around."
The early 1960s, a relatively wild period by Pakistani standards, saw the dupatta become shorter and less important. But religious conservatism and nationalism reasserted themselves toward the end of the decade. In 1966, Pakistan International Airways' new uniforms for flight attendants, designed by Pierre Cardin, replaced pert pillbox hats with what www.historyofpia.com describes as an "imaginatively molded dupatta that not only covered heads but also turned heads."
The dupatta and its traditional partner, the two-piece tunic and pants ensemble called a shalwar kameez, saw a renaissance under dictator Zia ul-Haq in the mid-1970s. He discouraged Western clothing, all but banned the sari as "too Indian" and launched a campaign to "look Pakistani."
Women on state-run television were ordered to cover their heads as part of Zia's religious-nationalist vision. News readers who refused were fired, leading others in defiance to pin the fabric's edge to their hair, a look some likened to the landing of a tiny UFO.
The Pakistani perhaps most associated with the dupatta was the first woman to head a Muslim state, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in 2007.
Educated overseas, Bhutto embraced the dupatta as a way to downplay her Western lifestyle and boost her voter appeal as a pious Muslim woman.
"It's sort of like a nun in the West, that men shouldn't think of her as sexy," said Kamiar Rokni, a fashion designer.
Maheen Khan, who designed Bhutto's inauguration outfit, said her original dupatta kept slipping off, so she suggested using white chiffon, which hung better and looked patriotic when matched with a green shalwar kameez -- the colors of Pakistan's flag.
Bhutto loved the idea and made it a fixture.
More recently, some women have complained of harassment and lewd comments in bazaars and other public places if they don't wear a dupatta, or don't drape it on their head, as Taliban-inspired fear spreads and society grows increasingly conservative.
"Without one, you're seen as wanton," said Shaheen Khan, 59, a homemaker in Karachi.
PASHMINA MAKING PROCESS
The pashmina making process undergoes pain staking process and the entire process is done completely by hand.
The pashmina wool is collected every spring from the Mountain goat "Chyangra" (Capra Hircus). Pashmina is the goat's soft underbelly down, which lies under the coarse and thick outer hair. Each goat produces only about 3 ounces or 80 grams of pashmina wool each year. One woven pashmina shawl require wool from about three goats, and is basically spun by hand. The yarn is spun on a spinning wheel locally known as 'Charkha'. Hand-spinning is extremely painstaking and time consuming task. It requires immense patience, dexterity and dedication of experienced and expert weavers.
Pashmina yarn is too fragile for the vibration caused by power looms, the weaving of the traditional 100% pashmina shawls are therefore done on hand-looms. The weaving process is in itself an art, which has been passed down over generations to give you the fabulous pashmina shawls and other pashmina products.
The making of the distinctive pashmina fringe and design is perhaps one of the most interesting stages of shawl making. It takes hours to fringe each pashmina shawl, pashmina stole or pashmina scarf or pashmina sweater or pashmina blanket.
Dyeing is also done by hand. Dyers with immense patience and generations of experience are the one who dye the pashmina shawls, as even the smallest negligence reflects on the quality of the product. Only natural dyes are used, making the shawls completely eco-friendly.
Thus pashmina production process includes:
Fiber Collection >> Fiber Spinning >> Weaving in Hand-looms >> Mending White Pieces >> Washing White Pieces to Remove Spot, Blots, etc. >> Dyeing >> Fringe and Designs Making >>Embroidery >> Ironing and finally Packing.
The entire process of manufacturing pashmina products like pashmina shawls, pashmina sweaters, pashmina scarves, pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers and pashmina blankets etc. are similar.
How is Pashmina Made?
Origin of Pashmina dates back to ancient civilization. In olden days though the pashmina making process was same as today, pashmina were made by hands, collecting pashmina fibers, spinning the pashmina wool, no extra colors were added and there were no dying system and the pashmina products were woven for their own use. As time changed the pashmina products found favor with the royal families, emperors, rulers, kings, etc. This precious fabric was known as the ROYAL FIBERS. Now this royal luxury is being offered in wide variety of shawls, stoles, scarves, mufflers, sweaters and blankets. These luxurious pashmina products are hand woven by traditional weavers whose families have been in the occupation since ages and they inherit this art from their ancestors, and tradition of this art continues from one generation to another generation.
Every summer, Himalayan farmers climb the high Himalayan regions to comb the fine woolen undercoat from the underbelly of, Himalayan mountain goat 'Chyangra' the Capra Hircus goat which is the source of pashmina, and which lives at elevations of 14500 feet (4500 meters) and above, where temperatures rarely rise above minus 40 degree centigrade in winter. Not to be confused with the endangered Tibetan antelope, chiru that is killed to produce Shahtoosh shawls, some also call these Chyangra goat as the Cashmere Goats. To survive the freezing environment at 14000 feet altitude, it grows a unique, incredibly soft pashm, inner coat, six times finer than human hair. Because it is only 15 - 19 microns in diameter, it can not be spun by machines, so the wool is hand-woven into pashmina products including shawls, stoles, scarves, mufflers, sweaters, wraps, throws, blankets, etc. to export worldwide.
With the coming of summer, the Himalayan goats shed their warm winter coats, Their underbellies are covered with two different types of wool: 1) The fine soft inner coat which is called pashmina and 2) a thick coarse outer layer. The wool is gathered by local women, who comb it thoroughly to separate the pashmina from the thicker, less luxuriant wool.
Each fiber is about one sixth the width of a human hair, and one shawl requires about 24 ounces of wool, the annual output of about 4 goats. The wool is too delicate for mechanical looms, and must therefore be spun and woven by hand. The techniques for producing fine pashmina products have been handed down through the generations, and sometimes the women in a family have carried out the practice since the days of the Mughal Empire.
The Pashmina Making Process includes following steps:
1. Wool Collection
First of all the wool from Chyangra (Capra Hircus) goat is collected. The pashmina wool is collected every spring. Then the soft fine pashmina is separated form the thick coarse hair. And both the soft pashmina and the thick coarse hair is taken for their further process.
2. Spinning
The pashmina wool is collected every spring and is basically spun by hand. The yarn is spun on a spinning wheel locally known as 'Charkha'. Prior to spinning, the raw material is treated by stretching and cleaning it to remove any dirt and soaked for a few days in a mixture of rice and water to make it softer. Hand-spinning is an extremely painstaking task. It requires immense patience, dexterity and dedication and is amazing process to watch.
3. Weaving
Pashmina yarn is too fragile for the vibration caused by power looms, the weaving of the traditional 100% pashmina shawls are therefore done on hand-looms. It is essential for the weaver to have a uniform hand. for par excellence fabric. Weaving here is done with a shuttle carrying the soft pashmina yarn through the fine yet strong silk warp. The weaving process is in itself an art, which has been passed down over generations, to give you the fabulous shawls, which we offer. It takes about four days to weave a single pashmina shawl. The weaving of pashmina products differ according to the nature of pashmina products. Different looms are required to weave different pashmina products. For pashmina shawls, pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers, pashmina scarves, pashmina blankets and pashmina sweaters are woven in different looms and they takes different amount of pashmina fibers and takes time accordingly.
4. Fringes and Designs
The attractive and excellent fringes and beautiful designs in pashmina shawl will be different than the others. Fringe and designs add extra beauty to pashmina shawls and other pashmina products. The making of the distinctive pashmina fringe and designs is an interesting stage of shawl making. Because the fringe and design making process is artistic and delicate process it takes hours to fringe and design each pashmina shawl or any other pashmina product by the expert.
5. Dyeing
Dyeing is also done by hand, and each piece individually. Dyers with immense patience and generations of experience are the one who dye the pashmina shawls, Pashmina stoles, pashmina mufflers, pashmina scarves, pashmina sweaters, pashmina blankets and other pashmina products, as even the smallest negligence reflects on the quality of the product. Only metal and azo free dyes are used, making the shawls and other pashmina products completely eco-friendly. The pure water used for dying is pumped up from deep beneath the surface. Dyeing is done at a temperature just below boiling point for nearly an hour. Pashmina wool is exceptionally absorbent, and dyes easily and deeply.
In this way a fabulous pashmina shawl, pashmina stole, pashmina scarf, pashmina muffler, pashmina sweater, pashmina blanket and other pashmina product is made. Since making of pashmina products is an pain staking, artistic and time consuming process therefore the quality and the price of pashmina products are incomparable to other garments or fibers.