Fine Pashmina Ring (Palladar) Shawl — Scarlet with Indigo Paisley Border

A fine Kashmiri pashmina ring shawl (Palladar) in a clear scarlet red, self-patterned edge to edge with paisley and flowering vine in the same colour, and finished at each end with a broad border of large paisleys worked on a dark indigo ground in gold, rose, aubergine and moss.

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

What sets this piece apart is that the border is not woven on the red. The weaver has laid down a dark indigo ground for the end panels and worked the paisleys over it in gold and rose — so the border reads as a separate, older cloth joined to the shawl rather than an extension of it. It is a harder thing to weave and a much stronger effect: the gold has something dark to sit against, and the red beside it looks cleaner for the contrast.

This is the formal and wedding-season piece of the range, and the indigo keeps it from being only that.

Details

• Ultra-fine hand-spun Kashmiri pashmina
• Handwoven ring shawl — passes through a finger ring
• Self-patterned scarlet ground with woven indigo-ground 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.