Pavlovsky Posad is the most famous Russian manufacturer of scarves wraps and shawls. Tourists of Russia often return with their scarves and shawls as souvenirs together with other notable items such as Matrioshkas that are a symbol of Russian complexity and enigma.The idea of establishing an in-house design studio at Pavlovsky Posad came alive in the 1850s. Up until the 1920s all shawls and scarfs were printed manually due to their large size, multicolour and complex patterns. Patterns were carved on large wooden boards, one for each colour. Typically it required at least three boards to complete one pattern, but sometimes there were up to 16 of them.
All designs were split into 4 to 24 fragments. The most complex designs required up to 400 applications to create one shawl wrap.
The factory also had their own colourists and compositions of dyes that were kept highly secret from competitors. The recipes remained the property of the colourists that created them.
After printing, all shawls were placed into special humid cellars to mature and fix the dyes. They were then steamed and sent to home-based workers to trim the edges. Every single wool shawl, one by one, was treated by at least 18 workers to complete the full cycle.
In the second half of 19c the annual turnover of the enterprise reached 1million roubles, which was absolutely huge for the time. The company was employing 700 workers full time and another 1000 locals were engaged on a part-time basis.
After the revolution of 1917 the enterprise was nationalised and remained as an estate property till 1990s.
The Soviet era was also reflected in the patterns of shawls and incorporated some agricultural and industrial motifs although the factory still concentrated mostly on folk crafts.
In the 1980s the manual printing had been stopped completely due to the complexity of the manual production. This has now been replaced by the most contemporary and sophisticated printing machines of Europe.
Currently the enterprise produces shawls and scarves wraps in 23 main colours. In parallel with restoring old traditional patterns, the artists create new modern designs, based on harmonic composition of close tones, predominantly in beige, ochre, brown and green colours.
A vegetative ornament has now overtaken the more traditional floral pattern. Nowadays the factory produces a range of over 200 different designs of wool shawls and silk scarves, all made of natural fibres.
Pavlovsky Posad wool shawls and pashmina scarves are exported to Europe, America and Middle East. Oriental designs are particularly popular in the Middle East. Muslim women like wearing them as a head scarf.
Apart from heads these lovely accessories can be worn as highly detailed neck scarf. Some of them are even good to be worn as tops. Natural silks used for scarfs production are also noted for allowing the body to breath in hot climates and are therefore great for use on holiday.
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