About Pashmina

Pashmina is referred to the fabric woven from ‘pashm’ (Persian word for wool), the soft downy undercoat that grows primarily on the neck and belly of the Himalayan mountain goat, Capra Hiracus, also referred to as the pashmina goat.

The yarn has a special lustre due to its long, fine fibres, which are as thin as 12 microns. In comparison, human hair is 200 microns and fine merino wool is 23 microns. The very fine pashm comes from Western Tibet in Changtang where nomadic herders known as Drokba tend flocks on the high plains. They collect fleece by combing the goats in late spring before they moult.

Hand Spun and woven by true artisans

The art of pashmina weaving is almost 2000 years old and the Kashmiri artisans have perfected the art of hand-spinning fine pashmina yarn. The delicate pashm is painstakingly cleaned and hand-spun into yarn and due to extremely fragile nature of the yarn, weaving a 2 meter length plain shawl takes at least 4 days to weave.

About the Weave

Our products are woven using the distinctive ‘eyes of a robin’ weave, also know as the diamond or Chasme Bulbul weave and the ‘fish bone’ weave or zig zag herringbone weave which is also know as maachli gond.

Beware of Cheap Imitations

Today many cheap imitations of pashmina are available in the market which has denigrated the word pashmina and the traditional weavers of Kashmir are suffering because of unfair competition from machine-woven cashmere products woven with machine spun cashmere yarn. Pure Lana only provides 100% pashmina. Be aware that pashmina blended with silk cannot be called pashmina nor can any machine spun cashmere be called pashmina.