Gulab Shawls

Gulab shawls were named after Gulab Chand, the son of the original founder, Narottam Ram, who gradually took over the factory.

In an interrogative discussion it was found out that naming of the shawls have a history in itself. In the Himachal there is a society called the Himalayan Weavers, and in the beginning the shawls of this factory were sold in the name to Himachali Shawls. Later on the government claimed that Nagwai came under the Kullu region and hence the shawls were sold in the name of Kullu shawls. He believes that there is nothing in the name. If the product is good enough, customer will buy it anyway.

Mr. Gulab Chand stated that his father started the weaving business in 1976, which was taken over by him in the year of 2000. He also added that he had learnt it in his school days itself.

Along with weaving, he also makes the patterns and design for the shawls himself. He had received National Award for weaving in 2004 by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam which was the first award for weaving received in the entire Himachal region. Previously the Gulab shawls had its factory on the main road but as the government was making four lane road so they recently had to shift away from the road and so the new factory is still under construction and being expanded. He also added that his house is very near to the new factory.

The factory that we visited was the main unit of Gulab shawls but they have units in many other villages which come under 25 kilometres from the place. They have around 100-150 workers and it was difficult for them to travel 25 km every day to come to the main factory and work. So they took small rooms on rent in different villages where they had placed few looms for the weavers of the village to come and work. Few of the villages where they have their outlets are Bomsoi, Paldi, Pnarsa, Balichoki etc. We were also informed that they started the business with only 2 looms. One small and one big. And now they have a lot of them.

The Gulab Shawls generally work with sheep wool. But also work with yak and angora wool. In the beginning they only used to work with pashmina but now the current market standard for pashmina has gone down as the processing units do not process pure pashmina. So the real identity of pashmina does not exist anymore. Mr. Gulab Chand has 2 children. His son is in 8th standard and daughter in 6th.

His children too are very interested in weaving. In fact both of them know a little bit weaving and are learning more. According to him his children would be continuing the business forward after him. The Gulab Shawls do not have a retail shop, they only make shawls on orders. Maximum of it is online. Orders come by mail. They also have their own site for Gulab shawls. The name is E-shop shawls and they get orders there. Also people who know them by name come there and give their orders personally. They get international orders too. Other than shawls they also make stoles, cushion covers and Himachali hats. The price varies from shawl to shawl depending upon the amount of work. The shawls start from 800 and go up to 1.5 to 2 lakhs. The shawls ranging from 1.5 to 2 lakhs have more intricate designs and motifs and hence are expensive.

Photographed by Khush Kakkar