Published in MyRepublica on 2010-01-21 23:36:01
CHYANGRA PASHMINA
PM unveils Pashmina's int'l trademark
KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Pashmina manufacturers on Thursday unveiled the international trademark, Chyangra Pashmina, which they registered in 31 countries to re-establish pashmina as a typical Nepali product and reclaim its lost glory in the international market.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal launched the trademark. “This is one good move that has come at the right time, when we needed to reclaim international markets to fight mammoth balance of payment deficit,” said Nepal, congratulating the industry men.
The registration has established pashmina, a Nepali name for the finest fur extract of mountain goats, as a typical Nepali product and defined pashmina items as commodities that have well-defined material content and traits.
The definition and trademark has established exclusive rights of Nepal over pashmina items. This will enable Nepal post three-fold rise in its exports, said officials of Nepal Pashmina Industries Association (NPIA).
“Once the brand name is known all over the world, our exports will bounce back to previous record of over Rs 7 billion,” said NPIA President Shankar Pandeya.
Nepali pashmina items had gained sudden acclaim in the international market and carved out niche markets in late 1990s. after fashion magazines associated the product with high-profile personalities, including the UK´s royal families.
That exposure soon boosted pashmina´s exports to Rs 7.5 billion in 2000 from Rs 360 million of 1997 and expanded its market to as many as 75 countries.
However, failure in maintaining quality and aggressive marketing of cashmere products as pashmina by India and China soon started to displace Nepali exports, dragging exports down to Rs 1.5 billion in 2008/09.
Furthermore, heavy use of viscose yarn, acrylic wool, soybean fiber and poly-yarn and marketing substandard products as “pashmina” had dented the image of actual pashmina. “Now no foul players will be able to mislead the buyers. Trademark has also compelled us to adhere to stipulated standard," said Pandeya.
Under the code of conduct approved by the association, only those pashmina products that ensure 95 percent purity of pashmina, contain at least 51 percent pashmina and use pashmina yarn up to 17 micron thickness only will be tagged as Chyangra Pashmina.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
William Safire on Pashmina
The Way We Live Now: 1-16-00: On Language; Pashmina
By William Safire
New York Times, January 16, 200
Do advertising tricks -- those hidden persuasions of the huckster class -- get your goat? If so, consider what has been done to the Capra hircus, a hairy wild goat that likes to graze along the mountainsides of the Himalayas.
For generations until 1684, the maharajah of Kashmir had exclusive rights to the underfur combed from the throat and belly of this cold old goat. The maharajah's domain was spelled "Kashmir," a land that remains in dispute even today between India and Pakistan, but the wool was spelled "cashmere."
Though sometimes challenged by exotic fabrics like vicuna (who now remembers what kind of coat Bernard Goldfine gave Sherman Adams?), cashmere has long been known as the finest wool that money can buy. That meant, of course, that it had to be topped by a wool even more rare, available at a higher price, to warm the skin of those late-arriving arrivistes who could learn to scorn the harsh feel of the cashmere worn by the riffraff.
Shahtoosh is a no-no; that "king of wool" comes from the Tibetan antelope, an endangered species. Enter pashmina, pronounced pash-MEE-nah, a new name to create the illusion of a new goat with softer fur. The linguistic trick is to use the Persian word for the mountain goat's fur and to ignore the name of the place -- Kashmir, pronounced cashmere -- where the weaving into wool is done.
Pashm is the Persian word for "wool," or more specifically, ''soft wool from under the throat of sheep or goats.'' In 1880, Mrs. A. G. F. Eliot James in ''Indian Industries'' wrote, ''The pashm, or shawl-wool, is a downy substance, growing next to the skin and under the thick hair of those goats found in Thibet and in the elevated lands north of the Himalayas.'' Thirteen years later, a British natural history magazine explained, ''It is this pashm of the goat of these regions which affords the materials for the celebrated Kashmir shawls.''
Pashmina is the Persian word for ''woolen,'' with a feminine ending. A couple of years ago, the pashmina push began. ''Finer than cashmere,'' touted one catalog, ''extraordinarily soft, warm and lightweight.'' Scarce; higher-priced; a gift even more eagerly sought after by the uxorious luxurious.
In The Wall Street Journal in November, Lauren Lipton shot it down: ''Sit down, fashionistas: Pashmina, this most hyped of fabrics, is not a particularly premium kind of cashmere.'' She quoted textile-science sources scoffing at the promotion and cashmere industry sources saying: ''Cashmere is the hair of the cashmere goat. Pashmina is the same goat.''
Pashmina marketers were quick to bleat that cashmere fibers were usually 15 microns thick while pashmina's were a few microns thinner, and their product was woven on a warp of spun silk. You can believe that if you're a Big Spender. A company calling itself Nepal Pashmina Industry, in Katmandu, honestly begins its product profile with ''pashmina (better known as cashmere).''
By William Safire
New York Times, January 16, 200
Do advertising tricks -- those hidden persuasions of the huckster class -- get your goat? If so, consider what has been done to the Capra hircus, a hairy wild goat that likes to graze along the mountainsides of the Himalayas.
For generations until 1684, the maharajah of Kashmir had exclusive rights to the underfur combed from the throat and belly of this cold old goat. The maharajah's domain was spelled "Kashmir," a land that remains in dispute even today between India and Pakistan, but the wool was spelled "cashmere."
Though sometimes challenged by exotic fabrics like vicuna (who now remembers what kind of coat Bernard Goldfine gave Sherman Adams?), cashmere has long been known as the finest wool that money can buy. That meant, of course, that it had to be topped by a wool even more rare, available at a higher price, to warm the skin of those late-arriving arrivistes who could learn to scorn the harsh feel of the cashmere worn by the riffraff.
Shahtoosh is a no-no; that "king of wool" comes from the Tibetan antelope, an endangered species. Enter pashmina, pronounced pash-MEE-nah, a new name to create the illusion of a new goat with softer fur. The linguistic trick is to use the Persian word for the mountain goat's fur and to ignore the name of the place -- Kashmir, pronounced cashmere -- where the weaving into wool is done.
Pashm is the Persian word for "wool," or more specifically, ''soft wool from under the throat of sheep or goats.'' In 1880, Mrs. A. G. F. Eliot James in ''Indian Industries'' wrote, ''The pashm, or shawl-wool, is a downy substance, growing next to the skin and under the thick hair of those goats found in Thibet and in the elevated lands north of the Himalayas.'' Thirteen years later, a British natural history magazine explained, ''It is this pashm of the goat of these regions which affords the materials for the celebrated Kashmir shawls.''
Pashmina is the Persian word for ''woolen,'' with a feminine ending. A couple of years ago, the pashmina push began. ''Finer than cashmere,'' touted one catalog, ''extraordinarily soft, warm and lightweight.'' Scarce; higher-priced; a gift even more eagerly sought after by the uxorious luxurious.
In The Wall Street Journal in November, Lauren Lipton shot it down: ''Sit down, fashionistas: Pashmina, this most hyped of fabrics, is not a particularly premium kind of cashmere.'' She quoted textile-science sources scoffing at the promotion and cashmere industry sources saying: ''Cashmere is the hair of the cashmere goat. Pashmina is the same goat.''
Pashmina marketers were quick to bleat that cashmere fibers were usually 15 microns thick while pashmina's were a few microns thinner, and their product was woven on a warp of spun silk. You can believe that if you're a Big Spender. A company calling itself Nepal Pashmina Industry, in Katmandu, honestly begins its product profile with ''pashmina (better known as cashmere).''
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