Reading 21 2

of Kashmir’s rich textile traditions after 1947, and both governments
promoted the export of Kashmiri shawls after Independence (Riazuddin
1988; Chattopadhyay 1995; Bamzai 1987).
3. All the books in the bibliography mention one or more of these uses but
see especially Ahad 1987, Alder 1985, Goswamy 1993, Irwin 1955, Kalter
1983, Scarce 1988/89, and Veinstein 1999. For illustrations, see Ames 1997
and Kumar 1999.
4. The Vermont Country Store mail order catalog still sells “Cashmere
Bouquet,” and claims that the talcum powder was first sold in the 1870s.
Over time, repeated European and Euro-American usage disassociated
the word “cashmere” from its geographical origin and may have
weakened its link to the “exotic.” China and Mongolia have become
geographical references for cashmere sweaters in thirty-eight U.S. mail
order catalogs such as Lands’ End.
5. For the historical irony concerning contemporary Western rhetoric
concerning product copyrights, see the review of the 1998-1999 Paris
exhibition “Cachemires parisiens a l’ecole de l’Asie, 1810-1880” in FMR
95, December 1998/January 1999, 13.
6. The plain-weave pashmina shawls currently in the marketplace are quite
distinct from the intricately woven Kashmiri shawls sold in the late
eighteenth century, but the raw material for both types of shawls is the
same. William Safire’s “On Language” in the January 16, 2000, New York
Times discussed the “advertising trick” of renaming cashmere to make it
sound more exclusive under the title “Pulling soft wool over your eyes”
(Magazine, 41). According to the December 6, 1999 issue of Newsweek,
pashmina shawls are not made from hair specially “culled from the necks
and bellies of Himalayan goats.” A U.S. scientific study compared
“cashmere” fibers to “pashmina” fibers and they looked “exactly” alike
under the microscope. Furthermore, the blending of silk with cashmere
makes the current shawls “lighter” in weight, but should also make them
cheaper as they have less cashmere (76–77).
7. For “fashion cycles,” see Fred Davis 1992, 80; for the link between
Chinese commodities and Chinoiserie, see Porter 1999; for Japonisme,
Hosley 1990; for Orientalism, Benjamin 1997, Edwards 2000, Stevens 1984,
and Sweetman 1988; for “Indian style,” Gere 1971 and Head 1986. Tracing
the parallels among these fashion cycles will be a separate project.
8. Coldwater Creek catalog, Spirit of the West, January 1999, 67.
9. Ladakh is a remote district of Jammu and Kashmir state in India, and is
politically separate from Tibet. Its capital is at Leh and it lies to the east of
the valley of Kashmir. Trade caravans that passed through Ladakh
Used by permission for Bridging World History, 26
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