Wrap Cloth Jacquard Design Jamawar Wool Shawl

Wrap clothes shawls in pure wool with designs of antique paisley are very popular in India, just in the way silk shawls are popular in the west. It may be for the simple reason that they go very well with some Indian dresses like saree and salwar kameez. It may also be because these shawls in earthy shades like maroon, green and sand are preferred colors of many Indians. In recent times Jamawar shawls have been very popular also in the west, gradually replacing silk pashmina.

Embroidered Shawls Scarves Phulkaris of Punjab

The earliest design on Kashmir seventeenth and eighteenth century shawls was a single flowering plant complete with roots, inspired by English herbals (books with plant illustrations) which reached the Mughal court during the seventeenth century. If the Kashmir shawls were the classical masculine high art of the loom, the phulkaris of Punjab represent the totally feminine art of the home.

Here, we have entered an entirely different ethos; there were no commercial pressures, just an ambience of warmth and family love expresses within the context of the community. Phulkaris were worn by women all over Punjab during marriage festivals and other joyous occasions. They were embroidered by the women for their own use and use of other family members and Phulkaris were never meant for sale but were the tangible tokens of continuity and heritage; they were the space where women got together to create marvels of the embroiderer's art, a play of textures and shimmering hues so fine that today we see them as the "dance of colour and light".