Hand Made Shawls in Pakistan
Hand Made Shawls in Pakistan
A shawl (Persian شال, Shāl, from Sanskrit: साडी śāṭī[1]) is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape. Other shapes include oblong shawls.
The first shawls, or "shals", were part of traditional Persian costume in Achaemenid Persia, worn by both males and females. Shawls were also part of the traditional male costume in Kashmir, which was probably introduced via assimilation to Persian culture. They were woven in extremely fine woollen twill, some were even said to be so fine as to fit through a ring. They could be in one colour only, woven in different colours (called tilikar), ornately woven or embroidered (called ameli).
Men Shawls as well as Women Shawls are used in order to keep warm, to complement a costume, and for symbolic reasons. One famous type of shawl is the tallit, worn by Jewish men during prayers and ceremonies. Women Shawls include Pashmina Shawls , Jamawar Shawls , Wool Shawls , Shahtoosh Shawls. Other varieties include Scarfs for Women , Uppers for Women , Wool Stole for Women.
Men Shawls include Pashmina Shawls for men , Sheep Wool Shawls men , Cotton Wool Shawls men , Shahtoosh Shawls men , Scarfs for men , Wool Uppers for men
Kashmiri shawls were high-fashion garments in Western Europe in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Imitation Kashmiri shawls woven in Paisley, Renfrewshire are the origin of the name of the traditional paisley pattern. Shawls were also manufactured in the city of Norwich, Norfolk from the late Eighteenth century (and some two decades before Paisley) until about the 1870s.
Silk shawls with fringes, made in China, were available by the first decade of the nineteenth century. Ones with embroidery and fringes were available in Europe and the Americas by 1820. These were called China crepe shawls, China shawls, and in Spain "mantones de Manila" because they were shipped to Spain from China via the port of Manila. The importance of these shawls in fashionable women's wardrobes declined between 1865 and 1870 in Western culture. However, they became part of folk dress in a number of places including Germany, the Near East, various parts of Latin America, and Spain where they became a part of gypsy dress especially in Andalusia and Madrid. These embroidered shawls were revived in the 1920s under the name Spanish shawls, a named derived from their use as part of the dress of Spanish Gypsies, also known as gitanas. Their use as part of the costume of the lead in the opera Carmen contributed to the association of the shawls with Spain rather than China.
Some cultures incorporate shawls of various types into their national folk dress, mainly because shawls were much more commonly used in earlier times.
Today, shawls are worn for added warmth (and fashion) at outdoor or indoor evening affairs where the temperature is warm enough for men in wool suits but not for women in dresses and where a jacket might be inappropriate.
