Fine Pashmina Ring (Palladar) Shawl — Black with Slate Blue Paisley Border

A fine Kashmiri pashmina ring shawl (Palladar) in black, self-patterned edge to edge with large paisleys woven in the same colour, and finished at each end with a broad border of curving paisleys in slate blue, plum, rose and pale grey — closed not by a fringe of colour but by a wide band of solid slate blue.

The name comes from the test. A Palladar is a shawl fine enough to be drawn whole through a finger ring — and that is only possible when the pashmina has been hand-spun on a charkha to a thread so fine it is barely visible against the light. Spinners who do this work have often done nothing else for decades. The weaving that follows is just as slow, because yarn this fine breaks if the loom is pushed.

A ground that is patterned, not plain

Most ring shawls are woven plain, because pattern adds weight and weight ends the ring test. This one is self-patterned across its whole length — large paisleys woven into the cloth in the same black, so they appear and disappear as the light moves over the folds. On a black shawl that is the difference between flat and deep: from across a room it reads as plain black, and up close it does not.

The blue end

Past the paisley border the ground changes colour entirely and finishes in a wide band of slate blue. That is a deliberate old-shawl device — it gives the border something to sit against and stops the design from simply running off the edge of the cloth. It also means the shawl reads differently depending on how you fold it: black when gathered at the shoulder, blue at the ends.

Black with muted blue and plum is quieter than black with gold. It is the piece for someone who wants the formality without the shine.

Details

• Ultra-fine hand-spun Kashmiri pashmina
• Handwoven ring shawl — passes through a finger ring
• Self-patterned black paisley ground with woven slate blue and plum end borders
• Solid slate blue end bands with fringed edge
• Approx. 40" × 80"
• Dry clean only
• Handwoven in Kashmir

Hand-spun yarn varies slightly along its length; the faint unevenness you can see against the light is the signature of hand work, not a fault.

Ships in Attan's branded box with a thank-you card, ready to gift.