Pashmina Shawl Colour Crib Class of 2013! Greens!

Greens - you either love 'em or hate 'em! But over the last few seasons they've been featured in bold  block emeralds and dashes of elderflowers and limes, so it has been difficult to ignore them.

We've been promised soft pastels for spring 2014 and on the catwalks these have translated into powder pinks, misty lavender blues and pale pistachios and aqua greens (see below). The designers who haven't bought into this trend are using touches of green - often teamed with fuchsia pink or blue-based mauve - to give a touch of green to a multi print, or as a 'pop' colour on an accessory.

In the shops right now, greens  (in the post-sale season at least)  seem altogether stronger shades.
That yellowy green elderflower or kiwi shade - see below - highlights black and white combinations in Harvey Nicks main display in Knightsbridge. Block emerald greens line up with bright oranges and stark white in Joseph Westbourne Grove, for a fresh twist that looks forward to warmer weather. Hobbs Covent Garden are currently out on their own with an autumn colour palette of burnt oranges, camels, berry reds and moss greens (see below). This is a new display and maybe, cleverly, they aren't pushing their customers into spring colours before winter is through. I'll be interested to see what they offer for spring-proper.

Our green shawl stock of 2013 has colours for now, and later in the spring...

Greens: Kiwi 161, (Seagreen 393 un-labelled. Reference for colour only - Sold Out), Moss 173, Cambridge Aqua 91-L, Mid Aqua Green 101

 

Our final shawl colours are coming soon...

Pashmina Shawl Colour Crib Class of 2013! Pinks and Blues!

Continuing the line-up of shawl colours that were in stock at the end of 2013, we have the perennially popular colours for pashminas - pinks and blues.

These are always a safe bet when buying a gift... you tend to know if someone is a blue or pink person, but not whether they are an orange or purple! And within these colour ranges we find that Pale Blue or Navy are at the top of the list as safe choices for blues; and Pale Pink still reigns supreme as the classic pink pashmina shade. While writing this blog, I actually had a call this morning from a regular customer needing a pale pink as a gift for a friend.

Despite this winter being heralded as 'all about mid-tone pinks,' we didn't find that pinks were any more popular than usual.  This could very well turn out to be the story of next winter - very often colours take a season or two to seep into the collective consciousness and become The Thing to wear. It could herald the return of Fuchsia to our shawl stock.... I do hope so!

Pinks: Rosewood 179, Candy 19, Pale 18LL, Rose 215, and also Palest Peach 79-L, Cream 55-LL

These colour numbers relate to the dye charts that can be found in earlier blogs and give an idea how the dye chart thread colours appear in a full size shawl version.

 

Blues: Sky 348-L, Pale 48-LL, Steel 63-L, Navy 54-D, Electric 222 (un-named) and also Pewter Grey 34

 

to be continued.....

 

Pashmina Shawl Colour Crib Class of 2013! Oranges and Reds!

As we bound forward in 2014 and our Home Page changes to a Valentine theme, I feel it's useful to immortalise the 'mug shots' that I did for the Class of 2013.

I basically took a photo of each colour available in the Pashmina and Silk Shawl (70 x 180cms) size, for a special Christmas offer.   In tandem with the dye charts that appear on this blog (and will appear again, to bring them up the blog list), this gives a good look at how the colours from the dye chart look in the finished shawl. And applies to many other scarves, stoles and shawls too.

As the dye charts are primarily produced as guides to embroidery silk, the colours naturally change slightly when cashmere comes into the equation.  This is even more apparent on pure cashmere. Colours that zing out on silk thread are far more muted when absorbed by cashmere.

Add to this the fact that our shawls are hand-dyed and the colours are mixed by eye by the dye-masters, each batch of dyeing is then unique to that moment.  Occasionally we order a standard colour and when we receive it we realise that we have to order again - the dye master has gone too dark or too pale to hit that classic shade. The benefit to the pashmina lover is that a new shade is then available and the choice of colours grows.....

Here are the Oranges:  Burnt Orange 403,  Bright Orange 62D (Unlabelled), Terracotta 402, Pale Coral 291

and the reds... Chilli 131,  Ruby 242, Bright Red 25 (Unlabelled) and Blush Red 130.

More colours to follow next week...