Paisley Indian Shawls stole is the most elegant of all shawls made in India. Often people seem to value these shawls even more than pashmina cashmere. This is because paisley is warmer and the designs are classic, created in 19th century. Cashmere pashmina on the other hand are softer. Paisley shawls can usually be worn on one side only. Probably this is what makes the paisley shawls more authentic. When you wear these shawls, heads turn. You truly look like a connoisseur.
Two Indian weavers, sitting side by side at the loom, could take up to three years to produce a top quality shawl, the price of which might be equivalent to that of a house. When women in the west fell in love with these Indian imports, European weavers attempted to produce a similar product at a lesser price, which resulted in the invention of the jacquard loom. One of the towns where the shawls were produced was Paisley, near Glasgow, whose name became synonymous with both the shawls and the teardrop or pinecone motif, which decorated them. Paisley pattern is a droplet shaped vegetable motif, also called buta, similar to half of the Yin yang symbol, the Indian bodhi tree leaf, or the mango tree.