A Swati Shahtoosh shawl in deep espresso brown, with a wide hand-embroidered paisley border framing all four sides and a large flowering paisley worked onto the field at the corner.
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.
A different border to our other espresso
We carry espresso brown in more than one embroidery, and this is the heavier of the two. Our other espresso has a narrow line running the four sides with a small paisley set into each corner — restrained, easy, the piece you reach for daily. This one is the opposite decision: a broad band packed edge to edge with curling paisleys, each one filled with its own vine and flowerheads, closed on the inside by a fine scalloped line and on the ends by a row of upright blossoming buta.
A wide border of this kind is several times the work of a narrow one, and the difficulty is not only the length of it. Each paisley inside the band has to sit at the same angle and the same size as the one before it, across the full width and again at the far end, or the eye catches the drift immediately. The corner paisley on the field is worked larger and more openly, so it reads on its own rather than competing with the band.
The colour
Brown at this depth is the most practical colour we sell. It does not show wear the way black does, it warms rather than cools the face, and it is the shade a man is most likely to buy for himself. Espresso has consistently been one of our best-selling grounds.
The embroidery here is worked in antique gold, copper and old rose, with small lifts of pale blue and green through the paisleys. On so dark a ground the gold does not sit on the cloth so much as glow off it — the border reads as a band of light at a distance and resolves into individual paisleys once you are close. The cloth itself carries a fine self-coloured lattice, visible only 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, 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.
