Pure Pashmina Shawl Price: How Much Does an Original Pashmina Cost?

A pure pashmina represents luxury fabric at its finest, as it is lightweight, soft, and cozy. If you have ever used an original pashmina shawl, one thing you have noticed is that it is the lightest and softest fiber. You can hardly feel it in your hands as it can weigh 150 grams but as soon as you put it on your shoulders, you can feel instant warmth due to the heat that's captured under the fabric.

This article will tell you everything about pure pashmina shawl price, how to identify if a pashmina shawl you are buying is genuine, and what to take care of before making a purchase.

Also Read: How to identify if the pashmina shawl I am buying is genuine?

Pure Pashmina Shawl Price

A pure, original pashmina shawl price can range from $250 to $400. If you want one with hand embroidery along the borders, expect to pay $500 to $1,000. And if you are looking at a woven Kani shawl, the prices may pass $2,000 and can probably hit $8,000.

When you walk through any street market in Delhi or London, you will see stalls selling "100% Pure Pashmina" for $30. Then you may need to be cautious; you may not be buying an original pashmina shawl but a fake one.

To identify a pure pashmina, always look at its texture. In original pashmina, you will find an irregular texture of fiber instead of the very consistent one as in machine-made ones. It will be very warm despite being very soft when you touch it or rub it on your cheeks. These are a few ways to check, as discussed below, if you are buying a real or fake pashmina product.

What is Actually a "Pure" Pashmina?

Pure pashmina is a hand-woven luxury fabric made out of the very rare Himalayan goat, known as Changthangi goat. Its diameter is measured in 12-16 microns which is many times finer than human hair strands. The source, the softness, the incredibly thin fiber, and the craftsmanship make the pashmina luxurious and popular.

"Pashmina" isn't a brand name itself. It’s also not a generic word for a cozy winter shawl or scarf, nor is it a blend of sheep wool and polyester.

As mentioned earlier, the original pashmina is derived from only one specific animal: The Changthangi Goat. And it is absolutely rare.

The goats have their origin in the Changthang plateau area of Ladakh, located at high heights of the Indian Himalayas, at a minimum height of 14,000 feet. The winter temperature here can drop below -30 degrees Celsius.

The goats have developed their down in response to survive under such harsh climatic conditions. When spring comes around, local Changpa nomads comb out this inner coat by hand.

A real pashmina shawl you see in the market goes through the following process: Changthangi Goat (Ladakh) ➔ Hand Combing of Undercoat ➔ Cleaning & Sorting of Wool ➔ Hand Spinning By Artisans ➔ Handloom Weaving ➔ Embroidering (As per demand).

So, you can now understand why the pure pashmina shawl price is so high. You can save thousands of dollars by buying the pure pashmina shawl at a reasonable price from reputable manufacturers and suppliers like AngelaJey. We source our collection directly from the traditional weavers in Kashmir to cut out expensive middlemen. This fair partnership allows us to offer you a certified, 100% authentic luxury piece at an honest price 

Why is Pure Pashmina Expensive?

A pure pashmina is expensive due to exclusive Changthangi goats, which live only in sub-zero, high-altitude regions of the Himalayas. This limited yield makes an original pashmina expensive and rare, and the complex and labor-intensive craftsmanship also makes it a scarce fiber. The production of a pashmina shawl can take a few weeks to months, depending on the design or crafting process requested by the customer.

The following are several reasons that make an original pashmina rare and expensive:

• Thickness: The pure pashmina shawl is very thin even many times thinner than human hair. The width of an average human hair is about 70 microns, while the average sheep's wool fiber is around 25-30 microns wide. The thickness of authentic Changthangi Pashmina wool is between 12 and 15 microns. This characteristic makes it rare and eventually expensive.
• Yield of Wool: The cashmere goat is itself very rare, and the production from one goat is also very limited. One goat produces raw cashmere wool that is equal to 150 grams in a year. But once its dirt is cleaned and the rough hair discarded, only less than 100 grams of cashmere wool can be collected.
• The Math of Production: You need the full annual wool yield of 4 to 5 goats just to get enough yarn for one plain pashmina shawl. Now, imagine if 100 luxury pashmina shawls are ordered in a day: This scarcity in supply is something that makes a pure pashmina shawl price so high.

Why Is A Machine Produced Pashmina Shawl Cheap?

Prices for machine-produced "pashmina shawl" may be as low as $50, but that is just because of its mass production. However, this pashmina is not 100% pure pashmina anymore. It will cost less because machine production adjusts the composition of the material. 

It is impractical with original 12-micron Pashmina because such fibers are so thin and fragile that they break instantly under machine tension. Thus, any production of Pashmina on a machine requires mixing the raw wool with synthetic agents of strength, such as nylon, silk, or polyester.

If you want a pure Pashmina shawl at a reasonable price, every single step has to be done by hand in Kashmir:

1. Cleaning and Sorting: Women sit for days removing tiny bits of dirt, straw, and coarse guard hair from the fluff.
2. Spinning: The raw wool is hand-spun onto traditional wooden spinning wheels (Yander or Charkha) to turn it into thin yarn.
3. Weaving: Master weavers weave manually on wooden looms, thread by thread. Simply weaving a plain, solid shawl takes 4 to 6 full days of sitting at a loom.

Also Read: How to Tell if a Pashmina is Real or Fake

Hand Embroidery and Kani Weaving Pashmina Shawl Price

The hand-embroidered pashmina shawl price can vary between $420 and $4,200 USD, while the Kani Weaving pashmina shawl price ranges from $480 to $6,000 USD and above. The price is completely justified by the complexity and the weeks of labor work involved. Kashmiri craftsmen use a few traditional methods to decorate these types of pashmina shawls:

1. Sozni Needlework

This is fine needlework done with silk or staple thread. The needle used is so thin that the artisan only pierces half the depth of the Pashmina fabric. It means the embroidery design looks almost identical on both sides, with no messy knots on the back.

• Border work (Hashidaar): Takes 1 to 3 months of daily work.
• Full coverage (Jamawar): Takes 6 to 18 months of continuous hand-stitching by a single master artisan.

2. Kani Weaving

Instead of using needles after the shawl is woven, Kani shawls build the pattern directly into the fabric as it's being woven on the loom. The weaver uses tiny wooden bobbins (kanis) filled with colored thread, following a written coded script called a Talim.

• A weaver might complete only a quarter of an inch a day. A full Kani shawl can take up to 2 years to complete.

When you buy a $3,000 shawl, you aren't paying for $3,000 worth of raw wool. You are paying for a year of a skilled human being's daily life.

Pashmina Shawl Price: Based on Shawl Type

If someone offers you a "100% Pure Pashmina" for $30, save your money. The cost of raw materials and basic hand labor is higher than the cost of production. Those cheap street scarves are almost always sheep wool or viscose treated with chemical softeners and spun on a machine in five minutes.

Read More: How to Unshrink Cashmere? Learn 3 Easy Methods!

How to Test if a Pashmina Shawl is Real

In the situation when you are purchasing products physically from a store rather than online, you do not need laboratory testing to see if your shawl is original. Make use of the following practical tips to tell if a pashmina is real or fake:

• Check it against the light: Machine-made textiles will be clearly recognizable by their perfectly symmetrical structure. Hand-made Pashminas, on the contrary, will have some slight variations in the thickness of threads.
• Examine the surface: Authentic Pashmina is known for its dull textures, while fake Pashmina will have some glimmer and shine due to the presence of silk, rayon, or synthetic materials.
• Conduct a burn test: Detach a loose thread from the fringe and ignite it. Natural animal wool will burn at a slow pace, giving off the smell of burning human hair and resulting in ash of soft gray color. Synthetic threads will melt and emit chemical odors.

Conclusion

A pashmina shawl is a luxurious fiber and its price ranges between $250 and $400 if you are looking for plain pashmina. However, the pashmina shawl cost rises significantly as the craftsmanship increases like printed, embroidered, full-coverage jamawar, kani, and other styles.

However, if you go for a machine-made pashmina, you will get it at a lower price but it won’t be an "original pashmina” either. But if you are looking for only original, high-quality, and authentic pashmina shawls, AngelaJey is here to offer you the highest quality pashminas. We source pashmina shawls directly from real artisans of Kashmir, Ladakh, and the Tibetan ranges of the Himalayas. Contact us today to get your luxurious pashmina shawl at the best price.