Different types of Indian handloom fabric by Folksmarket.com

Hi Folks, how many different types of fabric you have seen so far? I m sure many but its not always that you pay attention to these different kinds of fabric which you use almost on a daily basis. 

Before coming into field, I have never paid attention while my mom used to sew any clothes but as soon as I m introduced to this amazing world of fabric now everything changes suddenly. One becomes more interested in knowing while looking at any clothing as what kind of fabric is it? Is it a handmade or machine made? Natural or Man Made and so on..

While visiting to any clothing shop you would have heard the shopkeeper naming different fabric varieties, organza, muslin, chiffon, denim and so on.

 
(Log in to www.folksmarket.com to choose from one of the biggest  handloom  fabric collection)

 
In this section of our conversation, we wish to briefly touch upon different types of fabric. This should come handy to you while you go to a shop for purchase or window shopping. You should be able to appreciate different fabric and choose the one that suits your need in best way.

Well fabric is any woven (hand or machine) finished product from the yarns. It is complete in the sense of its ready to use after cutting and stitching. The different stages for the handloom fabric from natural fibres can be broadly categorized as

Cultivation of fibres --> Spinning of the fibres into yarn --> Dyeing --> Weaving --> Cutting and Stitching (including embroidery, zari etc) --> Washing --> Ready to use

Although in between any two stages, there are many more steps involved and there are separate mills and industries involve even for a single stage, yet in general it is suffice to know the above multi-stages of fabric production

Fabrics are formed from various raw materials available in nature or artificially made in labs or a mix of both.

Natural fabrics are those which are made from the animal furs (wool), plant seeds (cotton), cocoons of silk worm (silk), leaves and stems (jute and hemp). Synthetic fabrics are made from organic or inorganic materials combined with chemicals.

Among natural fabric and synthetic, the clear winner in totality is definitely Natural fabrics. It is breathable (due to presence of air packets in wool for example) and very skin friendly. It hardly changes its color from UV light and as long as the tensile strength of fabric is maintained, it will never be warmed. Synthetic fabrics are made in most of the cases for mass demand and more strength.

Lets take a look at important types of fabric

In this post we are publishing types of Natural Fabric. The Synthetic Fabric varieties will be covered in our next blog post

Cotton Fabric

Cotton Fabric by Folksmarket.com

Its an all season fabric and most widely used. From apparels to home furnishing to the industrial purpose, cotton finds their place almost everywhere. They are skin-friendly and possesses and amazing quality of keeping your body cool in summer and warm in winter.

Silk Fabric

Silk Fabric by Folksmarket.com

 Contrary to the general perception, silk fabric is one of the strongest natural fabric. It is known for its luster, beauty and affluent look. It is one of the high grade fabric and provides comfort to its user. Like cotton it too has the quality of keeping you warm in winter and cool in summer. Silk maintenance is bit expensive as compared to other fabric

Linen Fabric

Linen Fabric by Folksmarket.com

 One of its striking characteristic is resistant to allergies. Also known as King of all fabric, Linen is used for apparels, home furnishing and automobile industry. Its very easy to maintain and can be hand-washed.

Wool Fabric

Wool Fabric by Folksmarket.com

 The basic purpose of the wool is to keep you warm. Imagine the Musk-ox who thrives in glaciers of arctic. What made them possible in living in such an extreme weather? It’s the qiviut or under hair of the musk-ox. The wool fabrics are soft strong and very durable fabric.

Leather Fabric

 Obtained and made from the skin of animals, the Leather fabric has unique quality of absorbing the water vapours without losing the dryness. It is also stretchable and doesnot loose its shape on stretching. Although there are many ethical issues that engulfed the Leather Fabric, still its popular among folks!

 Most of the time, the Leather Fabric are not woven using handloom, therefore at Folksmarket.com, we do not deal in Leather Fabric.


Hemp Fabric

 Hemp is obtained from the stem of the plants. Italy is known to have the finest hemp in the world. They are durable, absorbs water well than any other natural fabric and possess insulation quality. 

Environmentally they are called as Super Fibre, they are made from the herbaceous plant that has high yield. Hemp fabric are soft and most suitable for the apparels that withstand harsh conditions. They are used for clothing, curtains, draperies, upholstery, bed spreads, table linens etc.

Jute Fabric

Jute Fabric by Folksmarket.com

 Jute is very strong and durable fabric. Since ages they are the preferred choice of sacks and bags. Now a days they are finding enough popularity in fashion industry. Lots of fashion accessories, footwear etc are made from the jute. India is the second largest producer of Jute after Bangladesh.

Carpets, Linoleum, Cordages and Twines are made majorly from Jute. They are traditionally been important fibres for the industry. It is sometimes used as webbing to cover the inner springs of the auto seats.

To be continued for Synthetic Fabrics in our next blog...

For more details, please log in www.folksmarket.com

Kindly contact us at:

folks@folksmarket.com

How to wash your Handloom Cotton Fabric - Folksmarket.com

Hey folks! In our last blog, we have briefly touched upon the 4 ways to care cotton fabric and talked in depth about the cotton, its evolution, its properties, types etc. The reason was to know your fabric before you can start caring about them. Now this piece will briefly touch upon the ways you can wash your cotton fabric.

Normally its not a science. Most of the manufacturers give instructions as how to wash and care for the fabric. Yet they may not be complete for wanting of the space! Its always a good idea to acquaint some basic principles that can be selectively use for different kind of fabric(apparels and furnishing) rather than knowing each and every detail for each and every kind of fabric!

Fabric often gets stained because of greases, oil, waxes, polluted chemicals present in the atmosphere and dyes. The aim of the fabric care, thus is two folds:

1-      Removing the pollutants

2-      Ironing to remove the wrinkles and bring freshness to the fabric

Fabric care is the joint responsibility of you and your cleaning agent.

Washing your Cotton Fabric

A - Spotting the spots

          1-      Identify the area that needs special attention. Usually its    neck, underarms and cuffs that need bit more rubbing. So before washing, check these spots.

         

          2-      Check if the fabric has some embellished (beads, graphics, zari, glitter etc). This area needs to pull inside out while washing.

 

          3-      Categorize your cotton fabric as “All white cotton” or “Dyed cotton”. Dyed cotton can also be thought as printed, graphed etc. Aim is to wash all white cotton and rest of the clothes separately. You can have multiple batching of the clothes depending upon the need.

B - Choose the detergent

           1-      General purpose detergent works well for cotton fabric and most of the fabric. We need to see of there is any scum or leftover on the fabric.

   

           2-      Check whether your detergent is mild or harsh. One good domestic way is to dissolve the recommended (normally given on the wrappers) quantity of detergent in 900 ml of cold water and allow the detergent and water to sit for 24 hours. Note if there is a residue settled in the bottom of the container. Now if it happens, then be sure that these residues are not going to be washed easily and often they will leave the whitish stain on the fabric. They are called as scum.

            3-      Choose the detergent which leaves no such scum. Don’t settle for low quality detergents.

C - Bleaching of white stained Cotton Fabric

One of the important characteristic of cotton fabric is that it can be bleached easily and retain that saints look for years. Hydrogen peroxide is a great bleaching agent. But Chlorine bleach is normally recommended for cotton fabric.

1- Take around 4 liters of semi hot water. Make sure that water is hot enough to clean but not hot enough to damage the fabric. Ideally you should be able to insert your finger to judge that temperature of the water. Mix a cup of dry dishwasher soap and add 1/3 cup of bleaching agent. Ensure that the mixing of this is not taking place in a metal container.

2- Put all the stained white clothes in small batches in this mixture and allow the fabric to soak the bleaching water. Do not agitate or rub at this moment, just allow them to soak.

3- Remove the clothes in 30-40 minutes depending upon the intensity of the stained. In any way not more than 40 minutes.

4- After 30-40 minutes, put the fabric immediately into washing machine without rinsing the bleached fabric. Add some washing detergent, on your washing machine and when its about to reach the rinse cycle add a 2/3^rd of White vinegar (or distilled vinegar or virgin vinegar). Let machine completes its washing. Dry the fabric after wash in clothing lines or washing machine. But make sure that you still put the clothes in clothing lines even if you dried in machine. Sun rays are so essential to fabric! Allow them to breath in fresh air.

5- White vinegar is essentially a distilled form of vinegar that is a mixture of acetic acid and water. It’s a common household, economical liquid and environment friendly. It kills all the bacteria, fungi and moulds from the fabric.

D - Other batch of CottonFabric

            1-  Wash cotton fabric either in machine or hand wash. Use lukewarm water and laundry detergent.

            2-   Irrespective of the fact that you are washing in machine, soak the clothes for 30 minutes in a non metallic container with the detergent.

  

            3-   Rub those spotted stained parts after 30 minutes. It may not be clean but at least you have agitated the dirt agents and they are more likely to adhere with the detergent while washed in a machine.

           4-    While soaking the embellished clothes and fabric pull them inside out. Don’t rub them hard, either don’t rub or rub very very gently.

   

           5-    Make sure that you rinse properly. This consumes more water than that required for washing. So please make sure that you utilize the water. Rinsing is an act of allowing the detergent to wash away taking dirt along.

          6-     Machine dried clothes should also be dried under the sky for a while.

   

    Cotton fabric are breathing fabric, the care as you have seen so far is not difficult. We all wish to care our fabric not only for its durable use but also to get a fresh feel away from pollution every time we wear. So why not we get more out of our efforts and make our fabric safe in our hands!!

For more details, please log in www.folksmarket.com

Kindly contact us at:

folks@folksmarket.com

4 ways to care your Cotton Fabric Apparels & Furnishing: Folksmarekt.com

Cotton is also referred to as White Gold historically. The term is appropriate as it continues to play a dominant role since 5000 years! Archaeologist have found cloth rags in Indus Valley Civilization dated back to 3000 BC. In 1500 BC, the Rig-Veda (sacred Hindu philosophy) hymn mentioned “threads in loom” which is generally accepted to be used for Cotton. Thus it is widely believed that Cotton production started first from India. However the Egyptian Civilization and inhabitants of Peru also knew about Cotton since ages. 

 

Cotton is most widely used natural fibres throughout the world. It requires sufficient moisture and heat to mature and grow quality fibres. The fibres of Cotton are made up of cellulose. Cotton fibres are attached to seeds inside boll of plant. A boll is made up of 6-7 seeds and near about 20,000 fibres attached to each seed making number of fibres more than 100,000. The boll of the cotton plant is also known as Seed pod. Each fibre is an elongated cell that has a hollow lumen inside that allows it to breath! The adhesive quality is due to wax like outer coating.

The length of the fibre is major determinant of the quality of the cotton. Generally long staple fibres are considered to be of higher quality. Staple length is divided into short, medium and long.

è Short staple is between 0.95cm and 2.4 cm in length

è Medium staple is between 2.54 cm and 2.86 cm in length

è Long staple could be anywhere between 3 cm to 6.35 cm

Cotton buyers buy cotton on the basis of length of fibres (staple fibre), cleanliness, degree of whiteness and fibre strength. 

Imporant Long staple cotton is Egyptian Cotton and Pima Cotton. Pima Cotton is also called sometime as ELS (Extra Long Staple) Cotton. Mainly grown in Peru, South West US and Australia, this is considered to be one of the superior blends of cotton. Egyptian Cotton by far is the most fine cotton. Towels and Sheets made from 

Egyptian cotton are in great demand as they are very soft and absorbs water quickly. Pima Cotton is similar to Egyptian cotton. It has a little smaller staple than Egyptian cotton but still it can be woven into dense and soft fabric.

So what makes this fibre so special? A look at its properties will clear the air.

(Care to peek in some beautiful cotton fabric from www.folksmarket.com? Scroll till the end!)

Properties of Cotton Products

Cotton fibres are valued for its comfort, easy to handle, affordability, natural breathing of air that soothes the skin and ofcourse the ability of millions of weavers who use this nature’s gift beautifully by making fabric for apparels, home furnishing, beddings, towels and many other decorative items.

•     Comfortable: Cotton has a soft texture and there is no surface irritant that brushes with the skin.
•     Hydrophilic: Cotton absorbs moisture from our body. It has a strong affinity with water.
•     The absorbed moisture passes through the cotton and evaporates that has a cooling effect on skin.
•     Heat Conductivity: The heat conductivity of cotton is very good. This makes it dissipate heat quickly
•     Fibres are strong and not prone to abrasion
•     Fibres can be twisted, plied and stretched.

However couple of factors can also be enumerated unfavorably. Notable among them are wrinkle prone fibre and dull color.

Nonetheless with the modern technique, the producers have now overcome these difficulties. For example, cotton in its natural state shrink by 3% but if pre treated it with certain chemicals, the effect can be reduced. This is more so for the denim. 

Moreover these days market is embracing with the fabric that is cotton blended with other fibre, like Silk and Linen.

How to wash cotton

No matter how the cotton is pre-treated, contraction or shrinkage is inherent in nature of cotton. However, one can minimize the shrinkage by bit extra care and following certain guidelines.

     1- Always hand-wash the cotton fabric. This is difficult for the busy people but it essentially is the first step in fighting the shrinkage.

     2- Be it machine or hand-wash, always use the cold water rather than warm water. Hot water agitates cotton fibre

     3- After washing, stretch your fabric, gently to neutralize its shrinkage after dry.

     4- Dry your clothes in natural sunlight. Using dryer etc make cotton fabric shrink more. 

The “White Gold” may lack color and luster but still its most sought after natural fibre. The comfort of cotton is unmatched. This is evident from the fact that Cotton fabric commands the major share of textile industry globally.

To choose wide range of cotton fabric, please visit Folksmarket.com. We have one of the largest collections of fine cotton fabric (more than 350). Some of them are listed below.

Cotton + Linen by Folksmarket.com

Cotton + Silk, Zari worked by Folksmarket.com

Cotton + Silk by Folksmarket.com

Cotton + Silk by Folksmarekt.com

Cotton + Silk by Folksmarket.com

Fine Mercerized Cotton Fabric by Folksmarket.com

Pure Cotton Fabric (merc) by Folksmarket.com

Pure Cotton Fabric by Folksmarket.com

The easy to use Add to Enquiry System makes your job much easier and convenient. You don’t need to hop in different pages to see your fabric. The entire product can be navigated quickly and with lesser hassles. 

(Folksmarket.com also offers blended cotton fabric; cotton-silk, cotton-jute, cotton-linen are all displayed in our website.)

What more?? All the technical and commercial information is readily available in your first click. Literally!!

For more enquiry, you may drop us a mail, shakti@folksmarket.com or subhash@folksmarket.com or Folksmarket@gmail.com

You can call us @ +91-9899275917/+91-9630338767/+91-9818170427

Cotton Fabric Producers,Traders wake up with shock - Folksmarket.com

The farmers, traders, importer-exporter wake up this morning with the shock of the plummeted price of the cotton. Global price of the cotton crashed significantly from the March 2011 last year. Owing to the forecast of bigger crops and waning demand have pushed down US cotton price from $2.2 per pound to $0.96/pound, which roughly translates to current price of INR 119/Kg from INR 420/Kg. 

Expected increase in Cotton Imports

The abrupt lowering of the price has generated an irresistible urge to increase the import of Cotton. Many textile companies cater to the world market which prefers cotton from US, Egypt and Australia. The cotton of these countries is finer in count and impurity free than the Indian cotton because of solid mechanization process in these countries. India is world’s second largest cotton producing country in the world. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh account for 90% of the total cotton production in India.

The price scenario now supports the import strategy of the textile companies as the price of the cotton in India today is INR 94/Kg, still lower than the global price of INR 119/Kg. 

After forex adjustments this price will be lower by 10% or less. As long as Indian textile companies receive a margin of 10% in the global rate, they will continue importing more. The superior cotton of US is greater in demand. The industry source confirmed that the excitement among Indian textile companies for imported cotton will last as long as the price differential is less than 10%.

Impact on Farmers

After a sharp rise in cotton production for two successive years, the decreased price will have a disastrous impact over the cotton production in India and Pakistan. Already there is a decline in number of hectares cultivated for cotton from last year. In Gujarat for example the total cultivation area for cotton was 3 million hectares last year which is going to decrease by atleast 500,000 hectares this year. Similarly the Pakistani farmers are also apprehensive about the sowing cotton this year because of the price decline. Though the cotton growth in the two countries take place in contrasting policies yet the result for India and Pakistani farmers remain tricky and at times dangerous. The complete ban proposed by central govt and executing partial ban on cotton export and abundance of illegal seed in the two countries pushed the farmers on the brink of hand to mouth situation.

Govt lacks will

The farmers are marred by the lax regulatory regime and absence of much needed structural transformation in both these countries. And now since the seed price has crashed from the last year price, the farmers will be less averse to grow cotton and look for other alternative to get better results from their investment. The lopsided cotton policy has already forced the farmers to sell their cotton at INR 32,000 per candy (355.5 Kg) against the same at INR 62,000 per candy they sold at, last year. Early trend suggest that there will be a minimum of 15% decline in the cotton production in these two countries.

Chinese aggression

China has taken the advantage of this fluid situation. China shocked the market by huge purchase of cotton from the US. Though China is world’s largest consumer of cotton and buying steadily since March 2011 but given the scale of its purchase close to 94% of net cotton export sales from US (795,700 bales) [1 bale = 170 Kg] is not in proportion to the huge demand back in China. The analyst fears that new purchase is meant for the strategic reserves of China and not the demand from apparel manufacturing. 

"Demand in China is anemic, but the reserve continues to buy to take advantage of lower prices for cotton," said Robert Antoshak, managing director of apparel maker and consultancy Olah Inc., which designs and produces apparel for Gap Inc. GPS +1.17%and Ann Inc. ANN +1.89%"They don't want to get caught buying expensive cotton again." [Source: Wall Street Journal]

The fear of lower price and increasing supplies in the coming year (beginning Aug 2012) starts surfacing. 

Road Ahead

The coming months may not see a decline in the order of cotton but the revenues are certainly going to be lesser. With the high import of cotton by the textile companies looming, the worst affected are the traditional cotton producing farmers who may either have to settle for less export price or reduced demand in domestic market.

The already tottered economy has suffered yet another blow and most of the countries govt including India and Pakistan have no strategy to counter. Govt has to be proactive to see how it can maintain a balance between the global market situation and cotton growing farmers.

May be by incentivizing the cotton fabric producers and popularizing the demand of cotton fabric both domestic and internationally. The moment calls for an out of the box solution.

[Check www.folksmarket.com)

Mercerized Handloom Cotton Fabric by Folksmarket.com

Often known as Pearl Cotton, Mercerization is a chemical treatment of Cotton Fabric and Cotton Yarn to give it more shiny, lusturous appearance and also increases its strength. Cotton Fabric is the most widely used fabric, be it in Handloom or Powerloom. Around 60% of all the Fabric used for Apparels and Home Furnishing, come from the cotton. The first use of Cotton assigned to India from where it reaches to different part of the world. The earliest use dates back to 3000 BC!

The English name of cotton is taken from the Arabic ‘(al) qutn’. The fibre is often spun to make breathable textile which is soft and most widely used natural fibre. 

It thus become obvious that lot and lot of experiments started to make this fabric more appealing to the consumers. Sometimes the fibre is altered keeping in mind the end result and use but sometimes its pure lateral thinking and experiment.

Mercerization of Cotton, though now symbolizes a lab treatment, is the name after the scientist who experimented it clinically. 

Cotton straight from the Farms

Before that lets look at what actually comes out of the nature that we use as Cotton Yarn. 

Cotton is a soft staple fibre that comes around the seed in the form of a ball, thus Cotton Ball. Each fibre is produced from an individual seed rooted through the base. One cotton ball has approximate 5,000 seeds altogether. The fibre starts out as projecting a hollow sheath and fresh layer is laid down in the inside of the sheath. The fibre, at this time, looks like a solid cylindrical rod with a central lumen consisting entire of cellulose. The ball then burst because added lateral movement of fibre produces a force. The fibre dries up due to the sun and collapse. The fibre is flat and there are alternating left and right twist per turn. The cotton also known as Kapas locally is then collected from the field and reaches to the mills for further processing. The carding machine in cotton mills turns the fibre into cotton yarn. Normally cotton fabric shrinks by 3% until pre-treated to neutralize that effect.

 

Mercer, Mercerization and Shine

Mercerization of the Cotton is the treatment of cotton fibre with Caustic Soda. John Mercer in 1851 got the patent for his work that he did with cotton fibre using caustic soda, sulphuric acid and many other chemicals. He listed all the changes in the fibre after treating it with various chemicals. One important point he mentioned, was that the fibre swelled, rounded and straightens out once treated with Caustic Soda. Though fibres swelled and straighten, there was no luster and the British Cotton trade industry showed NO INTEREST in this invention and the invention remained obscured for 40 years till 1890 when Horace Lowe showed what the Cotton industry missed out in these 40 years.

In 1890, Horace Lowe suggested that by applying Mercer’s caustic soda process to cotton yarn or fabric under tension, a resultant high lustre is observed in the yarn. The tension, which was missing in Mercer’s process, makes the surface of the fibre smooth and rounded and results in the reflection of the light off the surface. This is similar to the glass fibre phenomenon. The Mercerization was huge success and Cotton Industry embraced this process overnight. Lowe was gracious enough not to use his name even partially and the process is still called Mercerization and used only for Cotton.

Use of Mercerized Cotton

Merc Cotton by Folksmarket.com

Mercerized Cotton by Folksmarket.com

Though mercerized cotton abbreviated as merc. in textile industry finds it use in virtually all the things like apparel, furnishing yet its most important use is for Crochet.

Tension and Lustre

It is established that without tension there is no lustre. The more glass like fibre, the more the lustre will be. In the mercerization, cotton is held under tension for 10 minutes and treated with 21-23% of NaOH (Caustic Soda).

As the twist is required to give tension, it was found that fine, long staple cotton fibre gives the best adhesion required for tension. Thus it is those type of cotton that is selected for the mercerization process. In India, the cotton grown over Deccan Plateau under ideal condition and Egyptian cotton are good for mercerization.

Mercer while conducting his experiment found enough evidence to suggest that after caustic soda treatment there is a dramatic increase in the absorption level (a good 7.5%-8.5%) of the cotton fibre with all other variables keeping in constant.

The increase affinity in absorption level of the fibre holds true for direct dye-stuffs. This augurs well for the cotton. For dyeing its very important that fibre should have good affinity level with that dye. This affinity was due to Caustic Soda treatment. The cotton in its roving state that is no twist, is more likely to absorb water and dye then it is twisted. The amount of dye/water absorption depends a lot in twist. So you can very well assume that twisted yarn absorbs dye/water proportionally.

Mercerization, not only increase the lustre and dyeing absorption but also increase the strength of the cotton and resistance to mildew (a kind of molds or fungus found in plant)

Ammonia versus Caustic Soda

Mercerization is also done by Ammonia and these days they are done more frequently than the Caustic Soda. The effect of the fabric is different in two cases. The resistance to abrasion tears and tensile is significantly improved in ammonia mercerized cotton. The ammonia mercerized fabric is more softer than caustic soda mercerized fabric. The difference in effect is due to the smaller molecule of ammonia which led it to penetrate the cotton fibre complete than caustic soda. There is a less fibre swelling and fibres are more pliable and allow them to recover the bend more easily.

Nevertheless, it is the great Mercer and gracious Lowe who showed the world how a human intelligence can break the hurdles and create something that allows the textile industry swing with the mood of folks. This piece Celebrate such folks!!

King of Wool, Shahtoosh- The Indian Handloom Fabric by Folksmarket.com

(Check www.folksmarket.com)

The origin of Shahtoosh fabric to India is widely debated. Some viewed it to come from Tibet, some Mongolia and large section of historians are of the view that it was introduced to India by Mirza Mohammad Haida Dughlat, the Kashmir ruler during 1540-41.

Shahtoosh or “King of fine wool” (Persian) is mostly used for a specific types of Shawl made from the underhair of a Tibetan Antelope, popularly called as Chiru (Pantholops hodgsonii). Chirus are inhabitant of Tibet.  

Chiru are timid, vegetarian and delicate antelope, found in desolate vastness of the Tibet, Xinjiang and Ladakh regions and they migrate to Ladakh in summer and remain there from May to July. They live in one of the harshest condition at an altitude of over 5000 mtrs. The antelope Chiru develops a down hair in severe winters which protects it from cold weather and harsh cold condition. Later when the temperature goes up and normalize they then shed their wools. People or tribe falling Chirus then collect the wools and bring it to market. Sometimes Ladakhi peasants follow the Chiru through the mountain and pick the woolen fibre from bushes on which animals happen to snag themselves up.            

The fur is very light, fluffy and extremely warm. According to folklore of Kashmiris, an egg wrapped with Shahtoosh could boil it if kept in sunlight for an hour!!. Well there is no scientific validation to this fact, but it underlines how extreme warm wool fibre, Shahtoosh is. 

The delicate under hair is very fine, measured between 9-11 microns. They are so fine that an average fabric of 7 yards by 1.5 yards can be passed through the wedding ring! At first this sounds elusive like an Indian rope trick. But unlike the Indian rope trick this is very much tested and it does exist. When woven into a shawl, Shahtoosh looks like an ordinary shawl, till the time you feel it! It has a smoothness of silk. Once put in your hand in Shawl you feel like putting your hand in a cloud.

This incredibly fineness makes it virtually impossible to handle and this is where the weavers with their experience in handling one of the finest combed wool, Pashmina, has a role to play. Like Pashmina they could weave shawls from Shahtoosh and thus Shahtoosh shawl born. The weavers in Kashmir are so deft and skilled that they can even embroider over these shawls. This is so difficult even for Kashmiri weavers and they have to do it by starching it first. 

Shahtoosh-shawl making requires special looms and skill set which some of the Kashmiri weavers have been carrying since centuries. Kashmir enjoys the privilege of being the only region in India and world-over with the proficiency and adroitness to weave and spin Shahtoosh. Weaving is mostly done by the Kashmiri men and spinning by women. It is they who turn the humble, tangled bundles of raw wool into the miracle of Shahtoosh. It takes months from the arrival of clump wool to prepare a 7 yard shawl that consumes around 6 Pound of wool.

No wonder such shawls can cost you sometimes a million bug (Indian Currency, INR). Many locals still treat this fabric a must for their wardrobe. Shahtoosh shawls could be Plain as well as Embroidered. The cost of the Plain shawl is mostly determined by the percentage of Shahtoosh wool in it. As the wool is very fine, it is mixed with Cotton. Silk thread is used for embroidery.The colour of Shahtoosh is white, grey, etc but it is the white which is more expensive among most expensives!

Popularity of King of Wool

British traders should be credited with increasing the popularity index of Shahtoosh shawl for the world outside India. When they travelled to Kashmir, India during summer season, they realized the worth of Shahtoosh and introduced it to the world. In India, it being expensive, majorly was consumed by the Royals and Aristocrats. The Shahtoosh shawl is now a global name but is extremely popular in countries like France, Italy, Germany and other Western European countries. These countries are trendsetters in modern Fashion industries. Many folks of these countries treat this as must for Bride’s wardrobe. 

Global ban in Shahtoosh Fabric trading

As the modern consumerism grows the demand of Shahtoosh fabric, the traders stopped waiting for the antelope to shed its wool. Rather they started killing them. Chiru has, thus, become target for the poachers.

"It takes five dead Chirus to make one shahtoosh shawl," Poorva Joshipura, chief functionary of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) India, told IANS.

Relentless and unchecked poaching caused this innocent and timid animal to come down from more than a million at the start of 20^th century to about 150,000.

As a result that Shahtoosh trade was banned in Year 1975 globally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to which India is also a signatory. Indian govt woke up late in 1991 and banned it. Jammu and Kashmir govt had stayed away till it banned its sales in 2000. Eventually in May 2002, the state government outlawed Shahtoosh production, bringing its laws at par with Indian and International laws that prohibited trade in shahtoosh products.

The killing of the Chiru, a Schedule I animal according to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, is banned in India. The law is strict and states that processing or wearing shahtoosh is a punishable offence. The punishment includes hefty fines and even sending behind bar for those who carry the shawls. ‘In Jammu and Kashmir, the imprisonment for killing a Chiru is one to three years, with a proposed fine of Rs.5,000 to Rs.25,000,’ says Bashir Ahmed War, retired senior veterinarian of the Jammu and Kashmir Animal Husbandry department.

Impact of Ban over Shahtoosh Fabric weavers

Banning has not vanished its demands altogether. The King of wool and wool of King’s demand is not easy to fall. It has no alternative. Therefore even after the ban on Shahtoosh trade is effective for more than two decades, it still being smuggled from China, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. The raw material is imported secretly from China and Nepal, processed and woven into a shawl and sold.

But this ban comes with a price. Many Kashmiri weavers who are traditionally into this business feel the ban has done collateral damage. To work with ultrafine wool (9-11 microns) and produce superb fabric is not only their pride but also livelihood. "We have been hurt the most. The ban has been a kick on our stomachs. We have pleaded to the government of India to rethink the ban. But it has mostly fallen on deaf ears," Gawhar Maqbool, a wool exporter from Srinagar, told IANS. Gawhar Maqbool is among those 45,000 -50,000 families who are severely hit by the ban. The demand of Shahtoosh is reportedly come down to 25% of what it used to be during pre-banned years.

This is a perennial dilemma for Govt who need to fine tune between the environmental balances and livelihood of the affected families. The talk of rehabilitating those weavers into Pashmina is a successful step taken by Govt. Both Pashmina weaving and Shahtoosh require fine and skilled weaving. The Wildlife Trust of India is reportedly doing excellent work in this rehabilitation process. It envisioned a high-quality hand-made pashmina, using traditional techniques, as an alternative to shahtoosh for the producers as well as for their customers. Kudos to such initiative

Ray of Hope

The global effort to save this endangered antelope is paying rich dividend. A global wildlife trade monitoring network, confirmed that according to a survey reported by Chinese news agency Xinhua there is an increase in the number of endangered Chirus in Tibet.

The population of the endangered antelopes in Tibet registered a double increase from 75000 in late 1980s. The survey was comprehensive and lasted for 18 years in Tibet. For the past 6 years this rare antelope is growing by 7.9% annually.

Lessons for Shahtoosh Fabric Consumers and Traders- "Save Chiru"

What Every Prospective Shatoosh-buyer Should Know is the fact that furtive trading done is possible only because people are still purchasing it either out of ignorance or for brazen disrespect to our nature.

Those who accepts the claim of collecting the wool from the bushes needs to know that there are only paltry or no bushes at 5000 mtr height. One shawl thus means, killing 5-7 Chiru as they have never captured alive as far as we know. Even their domestication process is not much researched upon.

We must be responsible with our fashion and wardrobe as well. Next time you wear a Shahtoosh shawl just think that you are carrying corpses of 5-7 Chirus who are punished for being sweet and delicate to the nature.

(Visit our website www.folksmarket.com
Write us at folks@folksmarket.com )