Collections

The Swan Ways collection includes a wide variety of shawls, scarves, and fashion accessories of the highest standard of design, material, and workmanship. Representative examples include hand embroidered pashmina shawls from Kashmir, cashmere and merino shawls from India and Pakistan, and hand-woven shawls from Thailand and Laos. Each piece is individually selected to ensure they meet the highest standards of design and workmanship, and will add a note of distinctive and sophisticated elegance to any wardrobe.

Two specific embroidery stitches featured in the current collection are sozni and crewel embroidery. Sozni, also referred to as amlikar embroidery, is the extension of the rafugar stitch practiced in the 18th century to join the woven Jamavar shawls. This is the basic stitch employed to create very fine minute designs. The pure pashmina shawl with black background and extremely delicate embroidery is Swan Ways’ finest example of sozni stitch.

 A pure pashmina shawl using sozni and crewel embroidery
Crewel or the fine chain stitch with silk thread originates in Rajasthan, particularly in the district of Kutch. The rulers of Kutch were the patrons of the artisans practicing this form of embroidery, also known as “ari” work. It is worked with a small crochet-hook-like instrument called ari to decorate the shawls in elaborate compositions of bhutas, flowers and geometric figures with a subtly graded color scheme. The shawl pictured at right is one of the many fine examples in Swan Ways’ collection. A Swan Ways' collection shawl using crewel or the fine chain stitch from Rajasthan
Silk brocades from the Luang Prabang Province of Laos are hand-woven by artisans of the Hmong and Laotian hill tribes, renowned for their elaborate needlework and embroidery. The weaving process involves a discontinuous supplementary weft weave, which is very intricate and time consuming. These shawls are worn by Lao women on special occasions such as festivals, weddings, and religious ceremonies. Shawls are folded two or three times to hide the loose ends of the supplementary threads and then draped over the neck with both sides hanging far down in front. These pieces make a dramatic impact as evening accessories when worn with a solid color outfit. They are also beautiful home décor accents as wall hangings, runners, or displayed in a coffee table under glass.






Silk brocades from the Luang Prabang Province of Laos from the Swan Ways collection

 
Please call 703-969-1688 or
e-mail alix@swanways.com for a private appointment.

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