I keep seeing pictures of Celebrities, Royals and politicians wearing pashminas.
We always wonder if they are ours. We have delivered to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace before, but it could be for anyone who works at these addresses.
We always wonder if they are ours. We have delivered to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace before, but it could be for anyone who works at these addresses.
It's a pashmina shawl thing
They're a celebrity favourite, but will pashminas be a hit on the internet?
At a certain type of fashion or media gathering, a pashmina - a super-soft shawl made from goat cashmere blended with silk - has graced almost every pair of female shoulders in 2019. "Practically everybody has at least one," says Paul King, owner of Mypashmina and a retailer of pashminas in the UK.
Mypashmina began stocking them 16 years ago in 2003. Kate Moss and Jade Jagger wear pashminas all the time, Nicole Kidman bought 60 at once and the fashion assistants at Vogue House have such an insatiable lust for them that Mypashmina.co.uk , pashmina supplier par excellence, was nicknamed The Pashmina man on account of his almost daily deliveries.
Believe it or not, this is not the start of the phenomenon. While there are no doubt hundreds of women who have never heard of them and, frankly, couldn't care less, pashminas are about to take the high street by storm. This spring, Marks & Spencer introduced a small number into a few key stores "to test the market". They sold out straight away. From autumn, M&S will sell pashminas in major stores nationwide for just £99 - double the typical price at Mypashmina. Debenhams has two ranges in the pipeline. The first, designed by Philip Treacy, will be in stores from the end of July in pink, silver, lavender and pale blue, for only £100; the second arrives in September.
The key to the pashmina phenomenon, according to Paul, is "the sheer deliciousness of them. Just like we love to eat chocolate because it tastes good, women love to wear pashminas because they feel fantastic." But it's not just the way the cashmere and silk feels, it's the exclusive aura it confers. "They are very tactile," says Caroline of M&S, "but also very visible. They smack of sophistication."
The pashmina craze has undeniably Sloaney origins (one wearer told me the popularity of cyclamen pink was due to the fact that it "looks lovely with blonde hair") but their Eastern ethnicity prevents them looking too King's Road. These days, they are said to be almost as popular with readers of this newspaper as with those of Tatler.
There are practical reasons for the success of the pashmina: few women have an evening coat any more and the pashmina solves the problem of what to wear over a smart dress on cool evenings at summer parties and weddings. It is not just for eveningwear, though: Shani Fry, accessories head buyer for Debenhams, expects customers will also be wearing pashminas "to tone down a tailored suit".
It's not just whether you've got a pashmina, of course, but how you wear it. Shawl-like is fine with a slinky dress but over daytime clothes it can make you look like an eastern European granny on her way to the vegetable market. The done thing by day is to wear your pashmina as a scarf, folded in half lengthways with the fringed ends looped through in precisely the method intimidating Parisian schoolgirls used to make their scarves look dauntingly stylish when I was on the French exchange. Apparently there's "a little twisty motion" you do before you fold it in half that "makes all the difference", one devotee told me.
Even on the hottest days, some can't bear to be separated from their pashminas. On a summer afternoon in Westbourne Grove, a friend spotted two girls wearing their pashminas as sarongs. (But that's west London for you: I prefer the girl I saw in a pub in Islington wearing an Arsenal wall-hanging as a sarong.)
Pashmina mania
...meanwhile, is spreading from the core group of affluent thirtysomethings. Welstead reports that girls are being bought them for their 18th birthday; jewel colours and powder blue (anointed this season's pashmina shade by Vogue) are popular with younger women, while older customers love beige and cream. For next season, Welstead reckons his pashminas shaded from light to dark grey will do well, while Lewin expects to sell lots of winter white.
The pashmina market
...is expanding in all directions. Sophia Swire sells extra-soft pashminas for babies at a very grown-up £399, while Gieves, the new diffusion range from Savile Row tailors Gieves & Hawkes, features charcoal grey pashminas for men at £350. And it's not just a London thing: pashminas are doing brisk business at Barney's in New York.
The pashmina looks set to take the high street by storm. It has been called the 90s equivalent of the 80s Hermès scarf, but Sam Robinson, owner of The Cross in west London, which sells Welstead's pashminas, likens it to the Filofax: "A luxury item but ever so practical. You can't cope without one!" Of course not.
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