THE SHAWL THROUGH THE AGES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 126, 25 February 1928, Page 18

THE SHAWL THROUGH THE AGES

In mid-Victorian days when women wore enormous hoops and innumerable petticoats the shawl was chosen as an outside wrap because any sort of coat was virtually out of the question. There were otlier wraps, the burnous, the mantilla, and the andalusiau, but the square shawl crossed from corner to corner and worn precisely around the shoulders with edges held out by prim ballooning skirts was the usual outdoor wrap of the period. A generation or more before that time when the women of the Directoire period adopted tl.e shawl as a wrap their r.to'ive wa, just the reverse. It was the fashion then to sin" as much as passable the natural contours ot the body Frock. were scant ami of clinging matetiai and any sort of coat would have hidden somewhat the natural contours. But the shawl :>i soft material, skilfully draped, only enhanced their charms. We are inclined to consider the shawl as of fairly recent origin. The cashmere shawl from India made its appearance as an article of fashionable attire about 1786. It became extremely popular in Paris somewhat after that time, ami Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, had more than 300 shawls, though the story goes that ■Napoleon himself was for a time averse to the fashion.

■ But though the shawl dates its origin as a fashionable garment in Europe to about that time, it was as old as civilisation itself. It had long been one of the most important articles of dress of the native of India and other adjacent countries, and in one form or (mother had been part of the native costume in almost every part of the world. 'The blankets worn by Red Indians were a species of shawl. And when you come to think of it there could be nothing much simpler than a shawl. Having once learned the art of weaving fabric it required little imagination or inventiveness to drape a piece of it about the shoulders. To devise a tunic was, of course, a work of considerable more ingeniousness. The first shawls to win fashionable acceptance in modern Europe were elaboratelv coloured and exquisitely soft shawls from Cashmere, and these were six yards long and two yards wide. They were so expensive that only rich women could hope to possess them.

Later there were less expensive imitations, some being simply printed lengths of cotton. Paisley shawls, so popular two generations ago, were in fact only shawls made to imitate the genuine Cashmere in the town of Paisley, in Scotland. Apparently all those earliest shawls were of oblong proportions. It was not until 1812 that the first square shawls from Turkey came into fashion in Europe. At an early date there were lovely shawls from" China, made of crepe de chine, light, soft, bright, and durable shawls richlv embroidered in silk and edged with ' heavy knotted fringe.” Many of these were used in Spain and Italv. (where the heavier woollen shawls of the Cashmere type were less desirable, and needlewomen in these countries were soon set to work em-

broideritlg shawls of the same description. Despite the beauty of the old-time Cashmere shawl it would rind little place in the wardrobe of a modern woman. It is the interior decorators rather than the dressmakers who find wavs of making use of these old shawls from Cashmere. It is said that after the wool had been prepared and dyed for a Cashmere shawl, the work of weaving and embroidering kept three men busy for an entire year.