Matching Fabric Samples

I have been going through swatches of different English-made tweed-like fabrics from the venerable mill Abraham Moon and Sons (established in 1837). Moon's range of lambswool and merino wool cloths compliment the more robust shu very well indeed, so I am keen to use Moon's cloths with shu in future Hindu Kush jackets. The soft handle of Moon's cloth can be employed very usefully around the collar of my jackets, so that the wearer's face comes into contact with something slightly more comforting than the shu. (I don't want to put shu down, it's handle is soft too, not scratchy like a thorn-proof cloth).

In the most recent Hindu Kush jacket, currently calling it's self the 'Donegalistan' British cloth and shu compliment each other very well indeed. It is something which I am super keen to build on in future jackets!

Swatches from Moon's and shu.

Shu swatch

The Donegal tweed used in the Donegalistan

The Donegalistan with tweed collar and piping.

Video of Shu Making

Acapmedia have finished editing film which Alex Robertson and I took in Chitral, N.W. Pakistan. It shows the process of shu making. It will make you want to go to Chitral, which you should!

http://www.vimeo.com/acapmedia/hindukush

Password: HKC123

The Himalayan Edelweiss

The lady's coat is back from the tailor. No pictures of it yet I am afraid, but there will be soon! I have done a little drawing of a Himalayan Edelweiss to go inside it. I saw quite a few of these in 2006 near Baroghil around the Karumba lake on the border with Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor. It's a beautiful area of high altitude pasture, famed for it's wild flowers... and very remote, it take 3 days or so to walk in from the jeep road. I pressed quite a few flowers (below) and also started a drawing of local Wakhi women spinning wool- the same technique which is used in the manufacture of shu. 

... Back From The Hindu Kush

I had a wonderful time! It was very exciting to visit Garam Cheshma the village, high in the mountains on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where shu is made. The setting was exquisitely beautiful and the people involved in making shu were at once dignified and also very helpful to me. To witness the spinning and weaving processes was something else, the machines used could have been plucked from a scene hundreds of years ago. It would be wrong to understand them as primitive though, they were obviously efficient and ergonomic. The skill involved in using them was impressive and I now have a much better understanding of the labour which goes into the fabric.

I have pasted some screen captures from the film I took at Garam Cheshma below.

Off to the Hindu Kush!

I apologise for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks, but my spare time has been taken up with organising a trip to Pakistan. I leave on Friday and I am back on the 20th. Whilst out there I hope to film, photograph and interview the wonderful makers of shu!

I also want to visit these people for their famous Spring festival...

...and visit these people on their high altitude wanderings.

...and perhaps squeeze in a couple of days in this celestial valley!

Top photograph curtsey of Matan Rochlitz.

Our Second Jacket Finished

Like our first jacket our second jacket takes the elegant cut of a traditional Englishman's suit jacket and sets it against our star material: the famous shu wool of the Hindu Kush mountains. Shu is prized for its insulating properties, it's thick, but also lightweight and it's hard wearing as well as being soft to touch. As a nod to the traditional garments of the Hindu Kush we have done away with Western lapels and given our jacket a clean shawl collar, which unlike the first jacket is designed to be worn down. A small horn button is at the ready to fasten the collar, whilst leaving enough space to tuck a scarf in, for extra warmth and to protect the wearer's neck from the jacket's wool.  The collar is backed with durable, but flexible kaki moleskin. The coat is finished with patch pockets, three horn buttons and a sweeping hem ending in a single vent tail.

The Wool

Our wool is unique to the Hindu Kush. Shu, as the wool is known locally has been developed over generations to insulate against freezing temperatures and biting winds. It is thick and spongy, providing the wearer with maximum insulation whilst remaining light and flexible. Shu also has a felted finish which lends it a factor of wind proofing that comparable wools can’t match.

Shu is produced household by household using techniques which have not changed in centuries. No part of the shu manufacture process is mechanized, this means that shu is a handmade fabric in the truest sense of the term. The density of weave and thickness of felting vary subtly from household to household, leaving us with a product that bears the signatures of the artisans who made it.

Shubinak, our partner in Pakistan is partially owned by the artisans who make shu, ensuring that profit from the sale of their crafts finds its way back into the community.

Shu is made in settlements at the foot of Tirich Mir (7,700 m), the highest mountain in the Hindu Kush.  The production of the fabric is intimately linked to the mountains. Shepherds gather by hand the choicest fodder for their flocks from high altitude pastures, which are only revealed at the melting of the winter snow. Spring melt waters feed the streams in which shu is washed and felting happens in naturally occurring hot springs overlooked by Tirich Mir. For images of the production of shu please see www.shubinak.com.

Shu is made in nine laborious stages: first the sheep is washed and then sheared by hand. The wool is then treated with a locally occurring fine white soil to remove moisture and grease. Next a bow is vibrated over the wool to separate the fibers ready for teasing and then spinning. The spun yarn is then woven into fabric which is felted, stretched and hung out in the sun to dry.

In Chitral shu is generally woven into three items of clothing, the pakol, the patu and the shu-coat, all sported by the man above. The pakol is the distinctive cap worn by the peoples of the Hindu Kush, the patu is a blanket which is worn like a shawl in winter and the shu-coat is a long button-less, loose-cut overcoat.

Images to be reproduced only with the permission on Hindu Kush ltd.