Vintage Wool Rabari Shawl/Throw With Hand Embroidery, Mirror Work and Tie Dye

A hand embroidered woollen shawl with mirrorwork from the Rabari tribe of Kutch.
This is a rare vintage handmade item.
Dry Clean Only

Embroidery is an integral part of Rabari life. They consider the choli (blouse) one of their most important art forms because of its heavily embroidered front. Their stitchwork combines mirrors of many shapes: squares, triangles, diamonds, rectangles and circles. This unusual play with shaped mirrors is unique to Rabari embroidery.

The Rabari of northwest India are a community of nomads who migrated into Kachchh from the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. Rabari are expert camel breeders, cattle herders and shepards. Over time as a community grew too large for the environment to sustain, they would divide and a subgroup would migrate to a new region. Today there are myriad subgroups of Rabari. The main ones in Kachchh are Dhebaria, Vagharia, and Kachchhi. All trace their ancestry back to the mythical Sambal, created by Lord Shiva to look after the camels. Rabari are Hindu and are devout worshipers of the mother goddesses. Many Rabari still celebrate all marriages on only one day, the birthday of Lord Krishna. The marriages take place after the monsoon rains and signal the end of their annual wanderings.

As with all vintage textiles, the piece may have some stain marks and minor tears in the fabric owing to natural decay through time and atmospheric elements. The piece may also show some mending work done to salvage it. These irregularities and marks are a stamp of its authenticity and add to its charm.