Fine Pashmina Ring (Palladar) Shawl — Brick Red with Antique Paisley Border

A fine Kashmiri pashmina ring shawl (Palladar) in a deep brick red, self-patterned edge to edge with dense paisley and flowering vine in the same colour, and finished at each end with a broad woven border of large curved paisleys in antique rose, moss green, saffron and plum — the colours softened rather than bright, so the border reads as old work rather than new.

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 — the paisley is woven into the cloth in the same red, so it appears and disappears as the light moves over the folds. It gives the shawl the depth of a patterned piece while it still behaves like a plain one on the shoulder.

The border

The end panels are the traditional Kashmiri paisley border — large butas curving from a floral base, each one filled with smaller flowers and worked in five or six colours. The palette here is the muted, faded-antique range rather than the bright one, which is why it sits so easily against red: nothing in the border competes with the ground.

This is the wedding and formal-season shawl of the range — red is the colour Kashmir has always made for that — but the antique border keeps it wearable well beyond it.

Details

• Ultra-fine hand-spun Kashmiri pashmina
• Handwoven ring shawl — passes through a finger ring
• Self-patterned paisley ground with woven multicolour paisley end borders
• 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.