Tucked away in an unremarkable warehouse in Dubai’s Al Quoz industrial estate lays a treasure trove of exquisite pieces handmade by artisans from India’s Kashmir region.
Prized pickings include dining tables and chairs lovingly carved from walnut; antique silk rugs and carpets; intricate hand-stitched throws; bedding sets in a kaleidoscope of colours; and gossamer-light pashminas of the finest quality.
The warehouse is the latest venture from Pride of Kashmir, renowned throughout the UAE for selling beautifully designed and authentic Kashmiri artisan pieces. Proudly presided over by Musadiq Shah, whose family has spent almost 150 years championing the fine craftsmanship of their kinsfolk, the business was originally started in Srinagar by Shah’s grandfather, who set out making carpets and shawls for Kashmir’s royalty.
Despite the eventual decline of the maharajas following independence in 1947, Pride of Kashmir continued to grow and expand across India, attracting an ever-growing client base drawn to its indisputable quality and attention to detail. When Musadiq Shah took over the family business from his father in the 1980s, the time was ripe for expansion overseas – largely thanks to one of the 20th century’s most enduring style icons.
“Around this time, our business was attracting a lot of interest because of Princess Diana’s visits to India, when she started wearing some ethnic dresses and accessories,” recalls Shah. “Then Sophia Swire began visiting India from Hong Kong, and that’s how the fascination with Indian tradition began spreading to Europe and beyond.
“The growing interest from both the east and the west helped to make pashmina shawls a must-have accessory, and this is why Pride of Kashmir came to Dubai in the late 1980s,” he adds. The emirate’s geographical positioning at the crossroads of east and west made it the ideal location from which to reach both markets.
The rest, as they say, is history. Shah opened the UAE’s first Pride of Kashmir store in Dubai’s Deira City Centre in 1995. Soon afterwards he began supplying products to Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Harrods in London, and over the years has undertaken commissions for Abu Dhabi’s rulers as well as the British royal family.
Nowadays the business has evolved from primarily selling shawls to offering a unique showcase of Kashmiri products, including furniture, furnishings and ready-to-wear clothing.
Quality, according to Shah, is what sets his brand apart from the competition. “Despite industrialisation, our shawls are still made using traditional hand-spun and hand-woven techniques, which is why they can’t be copied by the likes of China or Scotland. That’s what makes us famous and unique.”
The UN has declared traditional Kashmiri weaving a near-extinct art and provides funding to help keep it afloat. As the general secretary of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, Shah understands all too well the importance of preserving this centuries-old skill. “We Kashmiris are mountain people. For six months of the year it’s winter in Kashmir – it’s a cold and harsh mountainous region,” he explains. “Spinning and weaving developed as a way to keep families working indoors and as a means to earn money and survive the long winters.”
Over the years, this successful cottage industry has proven to be a lifeline for generations of Kashmir’s artisans. “Today we have around 500 families in the Srinagar valley still working with us since my grandfather’s time.”
Shawl designs are all created in-house, while the cashmere wool used to make the pashminas is of the highest quality and sourced from the high-altitude Ladakh region or from Tibet. The most complex hand-embroidered shawls can take one person between three and six months to complete. Some, like the highly prized jamavar shawls, often woven in elaborate paisley-style patterns, can cost a princely Dh1 million.
Wool and silk carpets and rugs originating from Kashmir and Iran are also among Shah’s best-selling pieces – and are a definite cut above many of the carpets found on sale in this part of the world, he insists. “Our carpets are unique because we recreate the museum pieces that you would see in the likes of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. Each piece is individual and one-of-a-kind; if you want another piece like it, you have to wait another three years for it to be made. Every design is different and has its own history behind it.”
One of the most fascinating pieces in Pride of Kashmir’s warehouse is the 300-year-old jail carpet. In Mughal-era India, prisoners learnt new skills while serving time, as part of their rehabilitation. The result is the highly sought-after jail carpets; it could take four or five men around four years to complete each piece. The sizeable one hanging nonchalantly on Shah’s wall has been authenticated by Christie’s and is valued at a cool US$1 m (Dh3.6m).
While the jail carpet may be out of reach for most of us mere mortals, the good news is that until January 31, Pride of Kashmir is offering shoppers the chance to buy any item from its Al Quoz warehouse outlet at its original source cost. This means carpets once starting from Dh1,000 are available for Dh400 and furniture priced from Dh500 is available from Dh300, while Kashmir shawls start from Dh50.
Herein lays the raison raison d’être behind Pride of Kashmir’s new warehouse, says Shah. “Rental costs for retail spaces in Dubai have skyrocketed, but with a warehouse space we can keep our costs to a minimum and pass these savings on to our customers.”
In the UAE, where many expats come and go at the drop of a hat, Pride of Kashmir is a welcome antithesis to the throwaway consumer culture so prevalent among the country’s transient population. “You need to be 10 per cent connoisseur to be my customer,” says Shah. “Ours are investment pieces to be handed down to future generations.”
Perhaps this should be a New Year’s resolution for 2015: Forget the flat-pack; old is gold.
