The history of Pashmina dates back to the Mughal era, as it is believed to have been a favourite with Emperor Akbar. The emperor gifted the soft and lux shawls to his wives, which fuelled its popularity and production at the time. Earlier, the wool was reared by local pastors of Nepal and Tibet in Central Asia. It did not take much time to gain worldwide popularity thereon. 

The journey of Pashmina fabric has been a rather long one and centuries old. Being born in the high altitudes of the Himalayas, cashmere wool was traded down to markets by Kashmiri traders. The people of these markets invented the fine handspun shawls and added creative designs and embroidery. The arduous technique of transforming coarse goat fleece fibre into the softest textile attracted the nobles and elites of India. Their demand by the Rajas and Maharajas made 

Pashmina a sign of wealth and nobility. It was not just the Indian royalty who were fond of it, but also the foreign European and French merchants who grew a fascination for it and quickly started exporting it outside the country. When the French military leader, Napoleon presented a Pashmina shawl to his wife, she was so impressed that she ordered more of them to gift it to her social circle; hence, the textile reached the French elites. 

Making the pashmina shawls is not a one-step process; instead, the entire task involves several steps and can take up to a month to complete. It starts with the pastors of the high Himalayan foothills, combing the goat flocks routinely. This combing is done to keep the fleece clean and tangle-free. During this combing process, two types of wool are thus obtained. The first one is the outer coat which is coarser and is used to make cashmere products whereas, the second one lying beneath is the more refined and softer undercoat used to make pashminas. But that’s not all; What follows is a highly elaborate process of spinning, where the smaller and rougher strands are separated to filter out the softest lot of wool. This step is generally done by older women, requiring a lot of attention and patience. Once the yarn is successfully obtained after the spinning process, they are prepared for weaving by soaking in a homemade starch solution called “Maya”. 

Once the weaving is completed, the final steps are concluded by washing and dyeing. Embroidery and embellishments are added at the end. 

It must be noted that the community of pastors who obtain the wool have a strict rule to only do so in winters so as not to make the animals suffer during harsh winters. 

Pashmina textiles and goats are symbols of wealth. The textile is famous for its excellent quality and warming properties. It takes about a hundred artisans to produce just about nine shawls. 

The weaving process is tedious and done manually.