shawl presentation

The Kashmir Shawl in EuropeFashion in an Imperial Context

1780 - 1880

Srinagar. Paris. London. Paisley.

How Were Shawls Made? 1780-1850

Before getting into the narrative of the shawl in Europe, it is important to understand the object pre-Europe:

Shawls took about 18 months to complete.

Shawls were often sewn in sections, and stitched together,because of their complexity.

Shawls were made of pashmina wool, the finest of which came from the stomachs of Tibetan goats.

Today this fabric is called cashmere, derived from the name of the Kashmir region of India, where production was.

Every step of the production process was often done inthe same building. Srinagar had thousands for people employed in the industry; 5,000 embroiders alone in 1823.

Europe’s First Encounter 1780-1830

The first people to bring the shawl back to Europe were members of the East India Company, but more interestingly Napoleon himself amassed a large collection while in Egypt. In both cases the shawls were meant to be gifts for wives.

Within 20 years (1820s) workers in Srinagar were producing patterns sent by Europeans.

Europe’s First Encounter 1780-1830In Mughal, Persian and Ottoman realms shawls were wrapped by men into turbans.

Women wore the shawl in Europe, draping it over their shoulders, around their waists or in the crooks of their arms.

Thomas Lawrence. Mizra Abu’lHasan Khan. 1810. Oil

Europe’s First Encounter 1780-1830

The shawl is an exotic status symbol in Europe from the turn of the century.The garment represents a wearer’s awareness of foreign fashions, but that cache wasbased on European tropes, not the garment’s reality in Kashmir or the Islamic world.

The shawl is also compatible with most of the European fashion trends of the period, andas skirts swell with volume a well deployed shawl became critical. The shawl is becoming more and more divorced from its home region as it integrates into European wardrobes.

The Europeans will not begin to produce their own shawls locally for another 15-20 years.The Great Exhibitions, and the rise of Empire will correspond with both the shawl’s popularity peak and the beginning of European copying.

Exhibitions and Exposure 1851-1855

Exhibitions and Exposure 1851-1855

The expositions of 1851 and 1855 in London and Paris exposed Indian Culture, amongst many others, to the masses. India held a prominent place in the halls.

Shawls won top awards at all of the expositionsthrough to the 1867 Paris show.

Shawls gain a distinct place in the public consciousness and production in India is going up. Within ten years 100,000women are working as fabric spinners in tens of thousandsof looms.

The expositions, as exemplified by the shawl, are providing European audiences with consumable cultures. Europe is enamored with the shawl.

Replicating Shawls 1851-1865

Above: 19th century wool from IndiaRight: 1860-69 Scottish wool & cotton


The Jacquard loom is perfected in Europe at this time.

Shawls will be particularly susceptibleto the changes brought by the loombecause design elements can be incorporated into the fabric weavingprocess more easily.

Shawls can be made from European wools with European dyes. Manufactures expect the changes to barely affect the shawl’s quality. Yet the new shawls turned out very different from their Kashmiri cousins.


With Europeans making shawls locally, the market becomes flooded with inexpensive shawls.

The cost of a fine shawl made in Srinagar in the 1860s: £350100 for labor, 30 materials, 70 duties, 50 misc., 50 profitThe price was higher in cities like London and Boston.

The cost of a European copy made in Paisley, Scotland (for example) : £12.A European copy on the Jacquard looms of Lyon, France in 1870: £1

Some shawls were made in Europe before the Expos,but the jacquard loom and expos are the key turning point in the shawl’s narrative.

Below: British Wool of 1850

Right: Indian wool and silk3rd quarter of 19th Century


The patterning in Kashmir shawls is the most exciting part for Europeans; it’s where the exotic cache is.

The jacquard loom allows the patterning to be spread into the center of the shawlin a way that cannot be replicated byhandworkers without greatly increasing cost and complexity.


Materials in Europe vs. Kashmir

Kashmir: Fine, organic wool and silkNatural dyes

Result:Luxurious garment with delicate detail and polished finish overall.

Europe:Synthetic fabrics and lower qualitywools and cottonsArtificial dyes

Result:Lower quality garment with unnatural coloring and a harsher finish overall.

Exporting to India 1860-1880

Export to India 1860-1880

European manufacturers are encouraged to sell their shawls abroad

Jacquard loom is not in India at this time, so cost differentialis the same.

English and French manufacturers are eager to praise the shawls of Kashmir. They see the production quality as unparalleled.

European shawls can be marketedto a larger public, just as they reacheda larger, less wealthy customer in Europe

European Tastes in Flux 1860-1880Shawls are losing their luxurious cache with

the massive increase in availability.

Kashmir shawls are saved, passeddown in families. As fashion trends in terms of dresses change, girls pullout their mother’s and grandmother’sshawl

Shawls are also used as home furnishing

Too many people now wear and ownshawls for the ultra fashionable andtrendy to wear them

The exoticism of the original shawls is now diluted by the proliferationof European styles

European Tastes in Flux 1860-1880

Cultural forces based solely in Europe deal a final blow to the Kashmir shawl

Mutton Sleeves:Bustled Skirts:

European dresses become so voluminous, ornate and complex on their own, a shawl would serve to cover up the new styles.

Franco/Prussian War: The siege of Paris blocks imports to Europe’s style capital. Post war solemnity makes wildly patterned shawls ofall varieties inappropriate. Both the bright coloredEuropean shawls and ornately patterned Kashmirshawls are affected.

La Mode Illustrée. c. 1885

Indian Shawls in Decline 1870-1880

European demand had replaced falling demand in the Islamic world a century ago

Kashmir industry was supported by fickle European fashion trends

War, famine and increased taxation in Kashmir all hurt too

By 1880 the shawl is officially “out” in Europe.Demand in the Islamic world doesn’t recover.

Shawls in an Imperial Context

Europeans at all stages - manufacturers, exporters/importers, retailers and customers –had great appreciation for the Kashmir shawl as a luxurious and elegant garment.

“Cashmere Fever” lead to a desire to increase the number of shawls and derive from themwhen altering those designs. The paisley is known as a paisley because the town of Paisley, Scotland produced so many shawls with the oblong swirling motif.

At one end of things, Europe can be seen as importing a beautiful garment and successfullyintegrating it into its fashion discourse for multiple generations. At the more skeptical side,Europe can be seen as an imperialist consumer taking in the shawl only to change the shawl for its needs, killing the original.


While the decline of the Kashmiri industry in shawls is a case of Europeanindustrialization overpowering local, colonial production processes, fashion trends

and local events in Europe were an equal if not greater participant in the declineof the South Asian garment.

An important question becomes whether or not a fashion trend can be treatedas an imperialist marker or as a more innocent local whim.

Certainly when designers and dressmakers moved into bustled skirts and mutton sleevesthey were not harboring malice toward the shawl but moving dress design in a

new direction, in line with the progression of skirt lengths up the leg.

When John Forbes Watson discussed export of English textiles to India, he was quick todiscourage competition with India’s skilled artisans, saying they could not be beaten. Heencouraged European manufacturers to aim for mass market, low cost segments of the market

Shawls in an Imperial ContextFor all of those good intentions, Europe still consumed and corrupted

the shawl to please its own citizenry

Fashion constantly desires reinvention and change• In the period all sewn garments were made to measure;a shawl is ready-made speculatively and then offered onand open market• A shawl must therefore appeal to a customer’s personal stylewithout the personalized process of fitting the garment toits owner; a process so universal in the 19th century. • Though the shawl came from an idea original to Kashmir,the demands of the European fashion industry required changes to sustain the public’s interest.

Market forces, a mixture of financial and stylistic desires, are at the heart of the shawl’s narrative


Shawls entered Europe because they were aesthetically and stylistically pleasing. There was also an economic incentive for the producers of shawls in Kashmir.

Shawls flourished and spread throughout the European fashion lexicon, remaining part of that lexicon for almost a century because the shawl fit with European styles and because the shawl was a symbol or wealth and status.

Financial and Visual Incentives at the Core of the Narrative

Shawls fell out in Europe when they were no longer visuallycompatible with European styles, when they lost their wealthsymbolism, and when new manufacturing methods undercut costs.


What does the shawl’s tragic conclusion have to say about the Indian – European relationshipat this moment? Was the demise of production in Kashmir willfully caused or allowed to happen by Europeans?

In 1880 the shawl in Europe comes to an end.In 1900 the Kashmir industry is extinct completely.

European imports completely replace the home industryLong followed trade and production secrets are lostHand working, embroidery, weaving and dying techniquescease to be used, revived only be select garment producingfamilial dynasties.


When the money behind the Kashmir shawl was thereproduction was strong. With the mechanized loom, financial incentive was lost and the artisanal craftwas no longer practical for wide scale production

The above story is not revelatory for artisanal crafts. Yet the complete desecration of an entire industry employinghundreds of thousands of people in less than half a century suggests that an imperial context exacerbates the tense balanceat the center of the relationship between financial and visualaims. Imperial powers colonized for money and found culturally intriguing items too. Without the money to back them up, cultural endeavors are not worth pursuing or preserving for the Imperialists.

shawl presentation

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