If the pashminas are treasures that are passed on from generation to generation, it seems obvious that they will not be thrown away at the slightest hitch. They are then entrusted to the restorer who owns the delicate and ancestral art of repairing it: it is called “rafugar” …
A small room on the first floor of a house in the old town of Srinagar. Patience and fairy fingers are in the spotlight for a work of infinite detail: time passes differently in Kashmir. An example to follow, at a time when the West is forced to conceptualize the “slow fashion” to ward off the excesses of the consumer society … (Slow fashion and Pashminas will be the subject of a future article 😉)
The man is seated with the part to be repaired on his knees. It is a richly embroidered shawl that took over a year of work, but the delicate natural ecru pashmina of the border has been torn. The pashm threads are then recovered and patiently re-inserted into the weft to reproduce the pattern of the weaving weave.
But this is nothing compared to the book that awaits him: an old shahtoosh who has suffered well from the ravages of time … 😱
