Andraab

Andraab was founded in Jaipur in 1996 by brothers Mubashir and Muzakir with the explicit goal of reviving the heritage of the Kashmir shawl at a moment when factory-made imitations were eroding the market for genuine hand-woven pashmina. The house sources its cashmere from goats raised in the Changthang region of Ladakh, tended by traditional goatherds, and the raw fiber is spun and woven using methods refined in Kashmir over roughly five centuries. Finished pieces pass through skilled embroiderers who hand-work each shawl to exacting standards, a process the founders describe as sustaining hundreds of weavers and embroiderers across the Kashmir Valley. Andraab has positioned itself deliberately against mechanized, mass-produced imitation pashmina, framing authenticity and artisan welfare -- including the treatment of the goats themselves -- as central to its identity rather than a marketing footnote. From its Kashmir production base the brand has expanded into a small network of stores spanning New York, New Delhi, Srinagar and Jaipur, where it occupies a shop within the Narain Niwas Palace complex alongside a cluster of other Rajasthani craft retailers. The result is a business that functions simultaneously as a commercial atelier and as a working link in a regional textile tradition under pressure from industrial substitutes.