The earliest mention of beautiful Pashmina/Cashmere shawls on the western fashion scene seems to be around middle of the 18th century, when these shawls were brought in  the suitcases of  British officers and merchants on their return from India. Also we find a reference to them in the rich memoirs of Lord Clive. 

An academic paper of the same period  describes them “as the most delicate woollen manufacture in the world, so much prized in the East, and now so well known in…