Pashmina: The Kashmir Shawl and Beyond - Hardcover

Janet Rizvi; Monisha Ahmed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 938324321X ISBN 13: 9789383243211

Publisher: The Marg Foundation, 2017

Synopsis

The classic Kashmir shawl was the exquisite product of consummate skill and artistry applied to one of the world s most delicate fibres. It was an object of desire for Mughal emperors and Sikh maharajas, Iranian nobles, French empresses, Russian and British aristocrats and eventually for the prosperous 19th-century bourgeoisie on both sides of the Atlantic. It has left a permanent imprint on the aesthetic sensibility of the modern world in the socalled paisley, derived from a motif developed in the ateliers of Kashmir s shawl designers. This authoritative study introduces the Kashmir shawl as a cultural artefact with a known history spanning four centuries, and a geographical reference from Tibet to the United States. The authors original research lays many persistent myths to rest. Monisha Ahmed provides the first authentic account, based on years in the field, of the production of the raw material, pashm or cashmere . Janet Rizvi shows how the manufacturing technique of the shawl is rooted in skills indigenous to Kashmir s villages, and invites the reader s sympathy with the weavers, the poorest and most exploited section of Kashmiri society, whose skilled fingers created these dazzling textiles. Separate chapters deal with technique and design, the nature and use of the shawl in Mughal India, and the industry in the 19th century. Shawls were traded to Iran and the Ottoman Empire long before they were discovered by Western trendsetters. Finally, Rizvi documents the recent revival in Kashmir of ancient near-moribund skills. Lavishly illustrated and accessibly written, this book has much to offer textile scholars, and those interested in the history of Kashmir, or of India s material culture or its pre-modern trade. It will also delight anyone who has ever owned or admired a shawl from Kashmir. This updated edition documents a decade s developments in the pashmina and cashmere industries. An important new feature is a chart tabulating the evolution of shawl design according to period.

About this title

Review:

Combining first-rate scholarship with a firm grasp of the practical aspects of shawl manufacture... this addition to the corpus of Kashmir shawl books deserves to become the standard text. --Steven Cohen in Hali About the first edition

About the Author:

Janet Rizvi, freelance writer and researcher, has a PhD in history from Cambridge. Her book Ladakh, Crossroads of High Asia has been continuously in print for nearly 35 years. She is also author of the highly praised TransHimalayan Caravans: Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh. She has contributed articles on the Kashmir shawl to several authoritative reference works: The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, The Encyclopedia of India, and The Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. She wrote the chapter The Asian Trade in Kashmir Shawls in Textiles from India, The Global Trade (ed. Rosemary Crill). Monisha Ahmed is an independent researcher who has been visiting and writing about Ladakh since 1987. Her book, Living Fabric Weaving Among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya, received the Textile Society of America s R.L. Shep award in 2003 for best book in the field of ethnic textile studies. Since then she has coedited Ladakh Culture at the Crossroads, and published several articles on textile arts of Ladakh, including four in The Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Formerly Associate Editor of Marg, she is co-founder and Executive Director of the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO), Leh.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Marg Foundation
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 938324321X
• ISBN 13: 9789383243211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336