A Swati Shahtoosh shawl in deep maroon, with a wide hand-embroidered paisley border on all four sides and a large flowering paisley worked onto the field at the corner — the whole design lit with pale blue, rose, yellow and green against antique gold.
Block-printed, then embroidered by hand
The design does not go straight onto the cloth. It is first printed on with carved wooden blocks — an outline in washable ink that maps every line the embroiderer will follow. The blocks themselves are cut by a separate craftsman and a workshop may use the same set for decades.
The embroiderer then works the whole design by hand over that printed line. The ink washes out at the end, leaving only thread. It is worth understanding what this does and does not mean: the block guarantees the placement is even and the borders match corner to corner, but every stitch, every colour change and all the shading is still done by hand, one needle at a time. A printed shawl would be finished at the printing stage. This one is where the work begins.
Where this differs from our other bordered pieces
Several of our shawls carry a wide paisley band, and the drawing here is denser than most — paisleys packed shoulder to shoulder in two scales, each one filled with its own vine, and a row of upright arched buta closing the ends.
The real difference is the colour work. Most of our gold borders stay in one family: gold, copper, a little rose. This one breaks out of it. Pale blue, soft pink, citron and green are dropped into the flowerheads all through the band, which is a slower way to embroider — every extra colour means the worker stops, changes thread and picks the line back up exactly where it was left, hundreds of times across a border this size. The reward is that the band shifts as you look along it rather than reading as one flat gold mass.
The corner paisley is worked at a larger scale and more openly, with the same pastel lifts, so it holds its own against the band instead of disappearing into it.
The colour
Deep maroon is the dressiest ground we carry and the one most often chosen for weddings. It is darker and browner than a true wine — closer to oxblood — which is what lets the pastels sit on it without turning sweet. On a brighter red they would look like confetti; here they read as jewels.
The cloth carries a fine self-coloured lattice through the ground, visible when the light crosses it.
Details
- Swati Shahtoosh — handwoven in Salampur, Swat, and hand embroidered in Multan
- Self-coloured lattice through the ground
- Wide hand-embroidered paisley border on all four sides in gold, copper and pastel thread, with a large flowering paisley buta on the field at the corner
- Design block-printed first, then embroidered entirely by hand
- Approx. 40" × 80"
- Dry clean only — store folded and away from direct light
Each shawl is embroidered by hand, so slight variation between pieces is expected and is the mark of hand work rather than a fault.
Ships in Attan's branded box with a thank-you card, ready to gift.
