Imagine the icy temperatures that blast from the high plateaux of Mongolia and Xinjiang in China. Imagine temperatures falling to –40C. Imagine the freezing wind that whips through the glaciers and mountainsides. It is in this 14,000ft, forbidding region, that the beautiful Himalayan mountain goat (capra hircus) roams. To survive this inhospitable environment this wonderful animal grows a unique, incredibly soft pashm, or inner coat, six times finer than human hair. Known in the west as cashmere, this is one of the world's most rare and precious fibres; soft to handle, light and warm, and to wear it is to be insulated in your very own summertime.

Every spring/summer, Himalayan farmers climb these mountains to comb the fine woollen undercoat from the neck and chest of, the Capra hircus goat. The fleece consists of the very fine, crimpy down and the usually longer, outside, coarse, straight guard hairs. Cashmere fibers must be separated, either by combing out the down or by using a commercial dehairer on sheared fibers. It is painstakingly sorted to remove any coarse hairs, sand and loose dirt reducing the yield. A yield of at least 30 percent down is desirable, but is not the average by any means. Buyers pay on the down weight or weight of dehaired fiber, not the weight of the entire fleece. The longest, finest down is used in knitted garments and the shorter down in woven fabrics. Because it is only 14-19 microns in diameter (the fiber must be under 19 microns to be labeled cashmere), it cannot be spun by machines, so the downy wool is hand-woven into shawls. It takes the wool of three goats to produce one shawl.

The beautiful vale of Kashmir has always been famed for its craftsmanship. The weaving of tapestry shawls was first introduced into the valley from Turkistan, by Zain-ul-Abdin, the ruler of Kashmir, in the 15th century. Production benefited from the patronage of the Mughal rulers like Akbar and his successors, who wore these shawls, and also because of patronage of local government.

The collapse of the Mughal Empire left many weavers unemployed. The situation however, was saved by the enormous increase in demand from Europe, where the shawls became popular in the latter part of the 18th century. The European market for shawls collapsed in 1870 due to a combination of factors such as changing tastes and competition from Paisley shawls. The economic prostration of France when she was defeated by Prussia added to the declining European market. The Kashmiri weavers either left the valley for Punjab or started producing embroidered shawls for tourists; mainly British officers on furlough in colonised India.

At the beginning of the 19th century, foreign entrepreneurs started to commission shawls especially for the French market, adapting the designs to suit European taste. It was first introduced into "the outside world" as a gift to an Egyptian court, which later gave the shawl to Napoleon, who bestowed it upon his beloved Empress Josephine. Indeed Pashmina became the rage in France after Napoleon presented a rare shawl to Empress Josephine. With the progress of the century, the adaptation in designs became increasingly complex.

It was in the late 19th century that the cashmere industry had grown in the Scottish borders, due to the soft waters of the local rivers, that are so crucial to the ‘handle’ of the finished product. Specialised knitting and weaving techniques were developed for underwear. By the 1920's Coco Chanel and fellow Parisian Couturier Jean Patou, had discovered its fine jersey weights and wonderful tactile properties and proceeded to transform cashmere into highly desirable fashion clothing.

During the decades that followed, cashmere knitwear 'Made in Scotland', grew in repute. By the 1950's beautifully coloured twinsets, which are now considered classics, were made famous by film stars such as Grace Kelly. Today the luxury and exclusivity of Scottish cashmere is still highly prized.

Although the Pashmina shawl has been popular with aristocracy in Southern Asia since the 15th Century, pashmina sales in the West suddenly took off in 1998 when designers in London, Paris and New York started to include them in their fashion collections.
For many centuries Kashmir was the only place the fiber could be woven into shawls, but today although the traditional Kashmiri shawls are still embroidered by hand in India, most of the worlds pashmina shawls are woven on handlooms in Nepal's Katmandu Valley and most are woven on a warp of spun silk for increased suppleness and strength. In recent years this silk and cashmere blend has become the passion of the western fashion world. Fashion gurus now pronounce it as essential to the wardrobe as the ubiquitous little black dress.

There are literally hundreds of wonderful uses for a pashmina shawl from a visit to the opera to and evening walk in the park, from lunch at the Ritz to dinner on the patio, from a sunrise on a Mediterranean beach to a sunset on the Swiss Alps. It can be elegantly worn from autumn right through to spring as well as on those cool summer evenings and is so fine and light it can be folded up and neatly carried in your handbag or briefcase.
A pashmina shawl will provide you with many years of pleasurable wear as well as making the perfect gift.

Cashmere/Pashmina Definition
There is much confusion regarding the terms cashmere and pashmina. Traditionally, "Pashmina" is the Persian word for pashm meaning finest wool fibre, the "soft gold" king of fibre’s.

Pashmina is the original term for the pashm, once it has been spun into yarn. However, since Napoleons time, Europeans have used the word Cashmere to describe this fibre whilst the term pashmina has been used to describe the traditional shawl or stole that is made of either pure cashmere, or a mix of cashmere and silk, and is draped over the shoulders by Nobles and Royalty. Pure Pashmina is a luxury even in India so local weavers combine the Pashmina fibre with silk to impart durability and lustre to the material.