A shawl for every season

Original pashmina and shahtoosh shawls remain a preference for foreign customers.

KARACHI: For Asad Ayub of the National Art Corner, which sells everything from Mughal-inspired paintings to pashmina shawls, “There are no new designs as far as shawls are concerned. The designs are the same as they were years ago.” However, customers look for “a good quality product when it comes to pashmina shawls.”

According to Ayub, “Artificial pashminas sold in the market often gives a rash to foreigners, so they make sure they buy the original product. Both pashmina (made from the underbelly hair of the Himalayan goat) and shahtoosh shawls (made from the hair of the endangered Chiru antelope) are famous among foreign buyers.”

The sale of shahtoosh shawls is technically illegal since Pakistan is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Though foreign buyers don’t throng the market in large numbers as they once did, Ayub asserts some of them still visit Zainab Market.

Karachiites, on the other hand, prefer shawls made in Multan.

At Zainab Market, which is the hub for all kinds of shawls, Rajesh Kumar of AK Handicrafts said, “We have two kinds of shawls at our shop, Kashmiri shawls and Multani shawls. People residing in Karachi prefer Multani shawls, because it is not very cold in the city and the fabric used in the making of these shawls suits them best.”

Drawing a comparison between Kashmiri and Multani shawls, Kumar said, “Kashmiri shawls have extensive embroidery on them. Multani shawls have cut-dana work done by the women residing in the villages of Mitti and Umerkot. The final product comes to Karachi from there.”

While Kashmiri shawls are usually made in dark winter colours like red, rust, orange and black, light; pastel colours like light blue, purple and pink dominate Multani shawls.

Talking about the price range, Ayub said, “A [synthetic] pashmina shawl, which is a mixed fabric with silk, cost above Rs. 400. The real pashmina crosses Rs1,000 to Rs1,200 and shahtoosh is the most expensive of the lot, which is priced from Rs10,000 and above.”

When asked if the market was affected after the recent attack on the Crime Investigation Department office, Kumar strongly affirmed, “Of course, it did have an effect on the market as sales dropped.”

Unlike Rajesh, Hareesh Kumar of Chirag Handicrafts believes the market did not show any significant change after the attack. “Things were difficult to handle on the first day of the blast and the market shut down but it wasn’t the case afterwards.  We had buyers and people still shop.”

When asked about the five basic things people look for when buying a shawl, Hareesh said, “The colour, design, sometimes the embroidery, the quality of the fabric and how warm it can keep one during the cold season.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2010.