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==Kashmir Shawls==
[[File:Toulmouche_Bride.jpg|thumbnail|350px250px|left|The Reluctant Bride, 1865, Auguste Toulmouche. The woman on the left is shown wearing a large Kashmir Shawl.]]
One of the key items in this domestic interior was the Kashmir (or Cashmere) shawl. Introduced into the European fashion world by French noblewomen in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, they became a crucial part of the fashionable silhouette during the Regency and Empire styles. Unlike their contemporary sheer high-waisted muslin gowns (muslin being yet another Indian textile export which filtered through all layers of British society) which were replaced by the large skirted and higher necked gowns of the rest of the century the Kashmir shawls entered into the public conscious as the essential accessory for the respectable woman. <ref> Suzanne Daly, <i>The empire inside: Indian commodities in Victorian domestic novels,</i> (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 2011) 13.</ref>
Originally from the Kashmir region of northern India and patterned with both floral patterns and the curving shapes which would come to be known as paisley, Kashmir shawls were desirable because the pattern was visible on both sides and the goat fiber from which they were made was extremely soft and warm without being overly bulky. Although initially, all the shawls from Kashmir were hand woven and only made in India, the development of Jacquard loom in Europe, which allowed for similar patterning (although not reversible) created an economic situation such that by the end of the century the weavers in Kashmir were priced out of the market. At that point, many of the shawls coming from Kashmir were embroidered onto a plain white woven length of shawl cloth, a style which was also used to create full cloaks for export as this process was far quicker. Eventually, even that cost saving measure was not enough and the weavers of Kashmir were forced to move to areas where the wool was not as high of quality. By the end of the century the large shawls called Kashmir were almost entirely a domestic British product and the shawls which women brought with them to India, though based off of a handmade Indian product, were fully industrial and British in manufacture. <ref> Jennifer Harris, <i>5000 years of textiles,</i> (London: British Museum Press in association with The Whitworth Art Gallery and The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1993) 107. </ref>
[[File:Woman's_Shawl_LACMA_60.46.12_(1_of_5).jpg|thumbnail|350px250px|left|Woman's Shawl, India, Kashmir, mid-19th century, Goat-fleece underdown (cashmere wool) twill with double-interlocking tapestry-weave patterning, pieced, with wool embroidery, in the Collection of the Las Angeles County Museum of Art.]]
Within the domestic sphere, these same colorful and brightly patterned shawls moved from the shoulders of the domestic tastemakers to cover pieces of furniture. The Victorian’s were enraptured with covering every surface in their homes with textiles. Draping a shawl across a rented piano or a piece of subpar furniture enabled the homemaker in India the ability to hide some of the roughness of the situation. By using the same or similar textiles in the same ways, women stationed in India were able to create the illusion of being in a familiar and comforting environment. What is particularly interesting about the use of the Kashmir shawl within the domestic interior is that the image which is trying to be curated is one of middle-class British comfort while the object is a visual representation of the world outside the home, the world which the British women were trying so hard to ignore.
==Guidebooks==
Women coming to India were advised by the myriad of guidebooks available on what they needed to pack. This included according to the <i>Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook</i>, a guide published in the 1890’s by a woman who had made the trip with her own husband, 12 nightgowns of calico, silk and wool, 12 combinations of the same, 12 merino and silk vests, 12 calico and trimmed muslin bodices, 24 pairs of stockings, 18 petticoats including both flannel and warm ones, four evening combinations of trimmed calico, 18 gowns plus as many evening gowns as the woman saw fit, 11 pairs of shoes/boots and evening slippers to match the gowns. An earlier guide, <i>Real Life in India</i>, recommended a staggering 36 calico nightgowns with 36 matching nightcaps. As neither of these lists includes the complete amounts suggested within the texts what can be clearly seen is the staggering amount of clothing which women were instructed to bring with them. Many women who had been to India wrote home with suggestions for those who would follow and the most oft-repeated of these was to bring everything you would need from “Home” (with the capital H always referring to England, even among those people of mixed Indian and Anglo ancestry who had never been to the British Isles and who would not have been accepted as British had they made the trip). With a social structure centered around entertaining and outdoor activities women were expected to change their outfits several times a day, an accepted fact of Victorian England, yet, with the added subtropical heat more changes were required in India than would have been at Home. <ref> Ibid. 66</ref>
==Agriculture==
If women were bringing all their clothing to India with them, how was there a connection between the land where they resided and the clothes which they wore there? Simply put, Britain claimed India for a colony for its agricultural benefits and among those were the fibrous exports of cotton and wool. Between March 31, 1870, and March 31, 1871, the British Empire exported 577,600,764 pounds of cotton from India, making India one of the largest exporters of cotton in the world.<ref>Peter Harnetty, "Cotton Exports and Indian Agriculture, 1861-1870," The Economic History Review 24, no. 3 (1971): 414.</ref> While this was at the end of India’s time of pre-eminence amongst cotton exporters, earned during the American Civil War when their largest competitor was out of commission. Wool was also exported in large quantities. At the end of the 19th century, the Indian wool exports comprised approximately 13% of all British wool exports.<ref>C. E. W. Bean, "The Wool Industry in the British Dominions," <i>Journal of the Royal Society of Arts</i> 61, no. 3143 (1913): 328.</ref> These millions of pounds of cotton and wool exported from India went to the cotton mills of Britain where they became fabric of varying quality. The lower quality fabrics were then sent back to India for use in the native population while the higher quality textiles were made into different fabrics for use among the British population, including, of course, the ubiquitous chintz and Kashmir shawls which filled the domestic interiors. These same textiles were being used to create the clothing of British women. In this way the textiles of India, even after claimed by the British, made a full circle back to the location which they came from.
==Conclusion==
