Which Shawl Is For Me?

We sell shawls from Rs 5,000 to Rs 65,000, and the difference is not marketing. It is fibre, loom and hours of hand work. This page is the ladder in one place, so you can find the rung that fits the occasion and the budget without reading forty product pages.

The short answer

Rung by rung

Khadi and Everyday Swati Pashmina — Rs 5,000 to 10,000

Wool shawls handwoven in Salampur, Swat. Khadi is the plainest weave the village loom makes: light, soft, unembroidered, the shawl you leave in the car. The everyday Swati pashmina pieces are the same wool with a full field of hand-embroidery, which is the cheapest way to own an embroidered shawl. Pure wool pieces are the heavier, warmer version for January. Buy this rung for daily wear, for students, for a second shawl in a new colour. See the collection.

Swati Shahtoosh — Rs 12,500 to 13,500

The finest shawl the Salampur looms make, and our best seller by a distance. Fine Australian wool, handwoven in Swat, hand-embroidered in Multan: a classic border at 12,500, the full field at 13,500. It contains no antelope fibre and we say so on every page. Buy this rung if you want one good shawl that works for the office, a dinner and a walima, or a gift you cannot get wrong. Black, off-white and espresso brown are the three that sell most. See the collection · What Swati Shahtoosh actually is.

Kashmiri Pashmina — Rs 9,000 to 16,000

Real goat-fibre pashmina from the Kashmir looms, at the everyday end of the range: plain, border-embroidered or full-embroidered in the sozni tradition, and the Everyday Kani pieces on a lighter base. Softer and lighter than any wool shawl. Buy this rung if the hand of the cloth matters more to you than the decoration, and you want pashmina you will actually wear rather than keep. See the collection · Swati vs Kashmiri shawls.

Kani — Rs 19,000, up to 65,000

The pattern is not embroidered on: it is woven into the cloth, colour by colour, with small wooden bobbins, following a written pattern, a few centimetres a day. Most of our Kani sit at 19,000 on a hand-spun pashmina base; the zari and Mughal court pieces, with more colours, metal thread or a full pictorial scene, go higher. Every Kani is woven once. Buy this rung for a mehndi, a walima, a bride's trousseau, or a gift that is meant to be remembered. See the collection · Kani vs sozni, explained.

Fine Pashmina — Rs 25,000 to 29,500

The finest hand-spun pashmina we carry, in quieter designs: jamawar fields, fine Kani, self-patterned weaves. Less decoration than a Kani, more cloth. Buy this rung if you already own the loud shawl and want the one that feels best against the skin. See the collection.

Palladar / Ring Shawls — Rs 37,000 to 45,000

The top of the ladder. Pashmina spun so fine that the whole shawl passes through a finger ring — we film the test for every piece — with the palla, the patterned end panel, woven by hand. Buy this rung once: for a bride, for a mother, for a twenty-fifth anniversary. It is the shawl that gets passed on. See the collection · What a Palladar ring shawl is.

For men — Rs 6,500 to 10,000

Larger, roughly 45 by 90 inches, plain, in wool from Salampur: Swati pashmina, mix pashmina, pure wool and lambswool. Black, off-white and beige do most of the work. See the collection · Men's shawl guide.

Three questions people ask us most

Is it real pashmina? Only where the page says Kashmiri pashmina, Kani, fine pashmina or Palladar. Swati Shahtoosh and Swati pashmina are wool, and we price them as wool. How we test it.

Which one for a wedding? Guest: Swati Shahtoosh full embroidered, or a Kani. Bride or her mother: Kani or a ring shawl. The full guide.

Which one as a gift? Under 15,000, a Swati Shahtoosh in black or off-white is the gift nobody has ever returned. Above that, a Kani. Everything from 12,500 up arrives gift-boxed with a card.

Still not sure? WhatsApp us with the occasion and the budget, and we will tell you which two to look at.