What do you need to know about Pavlovo Posad Shawl Manufactory?
Scarves and shawls from the ancient town of Pavlovsky Posad occupy a special place among the world-famous unique products making up Russia’s pride and glory. Every year, Pavlovo Posad Shawl Manufactory manufactures about 800 kinds of shawls, wraps, scarves, mufflers, stoles, tablecloths from natural fibers: wool, cotton, silk, linen. The fact that the enterprise has been given the status of a national art craft of Russia means recognition of the high artistic and cultural value of our products.
Unique Pavlovsky Posad school of foulard print has developed on the handcrafted manufactory for more than two hundred years, preserving traditions and improving the skills of artists. The work on each new product begins from the pattern, and its future destiny depends on the correctness of the composition solution and color spectrum chosen. All patterns prepared are reviewed and approved by the Arts Council, to which merited artists of the factory, representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and of the Art and Expert Council of the Moscow Region on folk arts and crafts are invited.
A characteristic feature of our craft is the entire collective’s desire to realize the original intent of the artist. Once the pattern is approved, colorists start working on it. Their task is to select recipes for printing inks, achieving the most accurate reproduction of the author’s pattern made with gouache, using textile dyes. The main difficulty of this work is that the true color will be visible only after the fabric is processed with steam (this operation is necessary for the dye’s strong fixation on a wool fiber) and washed. Thus, the colorist has to make a lot of trial prints before the final recipe is achieved.
Every pattern is printed in several color variants (color schemes). Depending on the pattern’s difficulty, various ways for applying the pattern on a fabric are used. Printing is carried out on printed tables with automatic printing trolleys and multicolour printing machines. The most important operations are performed manually. A lot of efforts are required in order to create a high-quality Pavlovsky Posad shawl, with a unique design, environmentally friendly and comfortable to wear!
The manufacturing technology combines a caring attitude to traditions with the use of the latest scientific and technical achievements. All the models are prepared with the help of a unique direct engraving machine, which, controlled by a computer, puts droplets of melted wax onto the surface of the grid covered with a photo emulsion.
Printed inks are prepared in an automatic colour boiling room, where all processes, from dissolving the dye powder to mixing the finished paint, are executed without human intervention. The enterprise was the first in the world to introduce plasma chemical cloth treatment before printing instead of using environmentally harmful chlorination, being many years ahead of other enterprises, which are beginning to realize all the advantages of this method only today.
Specialists are constantly monitoring the complicated technological cycle for a scarf’s birth. After the product left the production stages, marketing specialists kick into action, ensuring the victorious march of the Pavlovsky Posad shawl brand in cities and countries. Nowadays the enterprise is developing its retail trade network: more than 50 stores already serve customers in Russia, and their number is continuously increasing.
The collection of branded products manufactured by our enterprise is diverse and wide, so that each buyer could choose what they like and fit them. Time passes, fashion changes, but the motto of our collective remains unchanged:
FLOWERS OF RUSSIA ON YOUR SHOULDERS!
How has time marked the evolution of Pavlovo Posad style?
Pavlovo shawls of 1860-1870s stylistically differed little from the shawls of Moscow manufactories, which were mostly decorated with the so-called Turkish pattern going back to woven oriental shawls. This pattern is most typical for Russian woven and printed shawls of the first half of the 19th century. It uses certain ornamental motifs in the form of a “bean” or “cucumber” (geometrized plant forms). Throughout the 19th century, interest in the Oriental art was quite stable in Russia. Although some researchers mistakenly attribute a purely floral ornamentation to Pavlovo shawls, the Turkish influence on Pavlovo shawls was also quite varied. Later, shawls with Turkish patterns were also included in the range of the Pavlovo Posad shawl factory, although they were produced on a lesser scale than shawls with floral ornaments. The decoration line of shawls and scarves with floral motifs was actively developing in the 1870s.
Shawl patterns of 1870 – 1880s were very diverse and bespoke high professionalism of the artists of the factory. The compositions of kerchiefs of those years were either magnificent and solemn or light and graceful. Ornamental motifs of styles from previous eras were used in their decor, along with floral patterns: stylized branches, curls, figurative vases, scalloped ribbons in complex turns. When impicturing flowers, garden flowers, primarily roses and dahlias were more likely to be preferred.
In 1871, the factory workshop already employed 7 draftsmen: Stepan Vasilyevich Postigov, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, Mikhail Ilyich Sudin, Akim Vasilyev, Pavel Nezhavkin, Boris Efremovich Krasilnikov, Zakhar Andreevich Prokhanov. By the end of the century, their number reached eleven. The work of artists was highly appreciated: the salary of Stepan Postigov, the highest-paid worker, was 45 rubles at that time, which was almost 2 times higher than the salary of a carver and several times higher than the salary of workers of other specialties.
End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century may be regarded as the time of final additions to the Pavlovo kerchief style. Two types of shawls were especially popular these years:
- The first included shawls made from thin translucent wool with or without silk warping. The pattern of such shawls was made on cream or colored fields, most often black or red. Ornament included a voluminous image of flowers collected in bouquets, garlands or scattered on the field of a handkerchief. Sometimes the flowers were supplemented with thin ornamental strips or small elements of stylized plant forms. A distinctive feature of the Pavlovo kerchiefs was impeccable harmony in the selection of color combinations and individual decor elements. It is no accident that in 1896 the enterprise received the highest award of the industrial exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod: the right to display the State Emblem on signboards and labels.
- The second Pavlovo shawl type, formed at that time, included shawls made from dense woolen fabric. They are distinguished by the nature of the printing, color scheme built on a combination of a several bright colors with a predominance of red, and, of course, the pattern. Compositional emphasis is placed on the kerchief corner, the pattern fills almost the entire surface of the fabric, leaving a small figure of the centerpiece free in the center.
From the mid-1920s, traditional floral patterns received a slightly different interpretation. In these years, flower forms became larger and coloring of the kerchiefs was based on bright contrasting combinations of red, green, blue and yellow colors.
Patterns made in the post-war period were characterized by decorative intensity and a more dense arrangement of floral patterns. The color and composition of the pattern with complex light and shadow developments matched the general trend in the development of applied arts of those years.
Along with the development of the classical line, new, modern patterns appeared, taking into account the European trends in the shawl development. In accordance with the fashion and style of that time, the color structure of the products changes. The color spectrum is built on a harmonious combination of closely approximated tones with predominance of beige, ochreous, brown and greenish shades.
Why should you have at least one Russian Shawl in your wardrobe?
Even in cold season the woman wants to stay beautiful, elegant and stylish. The only chance to achieve the desired result and keep healthy in autumn and winter is a warm stylish item of clothing. Pavlovo Posad Shawls and Scarves provide you a unique experience, due to both their authentic design and the impressive legend of the brand. Moreover, a Russian Scarf/Shawl given as a present to your beloved will be the perfect expression of attention, care and love. Therefore, we invite you to visit our online shop at www.miloya.com and choose the models that best fit your preferences!
