Wednesday, December 03
New entry
Another one up! I'm on a roll!
By the way, Alysia and I got in to along debate/discussion about "pashminas" today. (She says, "What's the point of being a woman if you don't know about things like pashminas?" I say, "What's the point of knowing about pashminas if you can't afford one?") Anyway, one of the points we discussed was what exactly a pashmina was. Is it a brand name? Is it a type of material? Is it a type of garment? (Looks like a big scarf to me.) What is this thing, and what makes it worth so much money? Seriously; inquiring minds (well, mine) want to know.
Posted on December 03, 10:23 PM
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I remember reading about pashminas in The Tiger Ladies by Sudha Koul. It's a memoir set in Kashmir before the violence. She talks quite a bit about cashmire, but what I remembered more was that they carried little firepots around and sat on them to keep warm.
Ah, marketing. You've just got to love the brains in that business. :-)
I've never been a shawl-type girl. I tried, once; I wore one to a prom in high school, and I spent the entire evening dragging it around and wishing I'd just left it behind. Give me a nice hands-free wrap any day of the week.
A pashmina is a cashmere shawl. A few years ago they were a huge trend here (especially in pink, for whatever reason). The word pashmina means cashmere, and it was marketed as an extra-special, super-soft, uber-luxe type of cashmere. But recently I read an article that said it's actually the same as any other cashmere. According to this article (I wish I remember where I read it), what happened is that as cashmere, once the ultimate in luxury, became accessible to the masses, textile manufacturers needed a new luxury item to sell at obscene prices, so they marketed the word pashmina.
So I am in the fabric store and a high school girl is gathering velvet fabric with her mother, insisting that she has something to cover up with. The employee asks "What are you making?" The mom replies, "A cover-up for her dress, she is going to a dance." I then blurt out that she is making a pashmina! I got the exact look you gave me Carrie! I give up, and to beat all they are our of style now! (according to Jen) Ohh well, onto a new project!
Pashmina is a specific type of wool. "Real" pashminas are several hundred dollars. Fake ones are just knock offs of the typical styles (long and wide), and are made with a variety of different yarns, mostly acrylic.
I'm sorry about your Grandma. This is just sh*tty. And yeah.. what is up with this year?! I hope nobody else gets any bad news.
Hope your mouth gets back to normal ASAP! :)
I was confused about the pashmina thing too, but Ebay tells me that it's actually taken from the Persian word for wool. So it's the fabric, but we Americans screw everything up, so it's also the name for the scarf, shawl, wrap, whatever. I want one too!
PS... I love that Ebay dress too!
Pashminas are amazing! I buy mine off the street in Chinatown for $10 a pop. Yeah, they are fake, but they are pretty, warm, and I don't freak out if I leave it on the subway.
that dress is beautiful! I've never heard of them before now and I just spent an hour on ebay going through their listings! I hope you win it :)
I love the ebay dress. I hope you win it!
