150 designs of Pashmina launched

Pashmina Product Development Committee (PPDC), a unit of Handicraft Design and Development Center, has launched around 150 pashmina designs.

The designs are showcased at the Pashmina Sample Design Exhibition being held in Lalitpur.

“The patterns, which will soon be patented, have been designed as per the color forecast made by international designers for the year 2007-08,” Bikash Ratna Dhakwa, coordinator of PPDC said. “This is our first attempt. We hope this will set a good example to pashmina industries and encourage them to come up with other innovative designs to compete in the international market,” he said.

According to Dhakwa, the patterns made under the themes of Garden Story, Blue Story and Earth Story are not only suitable for manufacturing of pashmina apparels but other products such as bed sheet, blanket and pillow cover.

“To facilitate small pashmina industries that cannot mobilize resources to conduct research and development activities, we have also decided to sell the newly-launched patterns to pashmina industries at a cost of Rs 5,000 each,” he said.

The cost also incorporates free training on pattern designing for employees of the respective pashmina industry that purchase the pattern, Dhakwa added. The buyer will have exclusive right over the pattern.