Soft, Warm And Illegal

By NADYA LABI

In 1994 New York City's highest society ladies convened to do good. Nan Kempner, one of the most esteemed members of that coterie, sent out invitations to a charity sale that offered more than the evanescent pleasure of a $10,000 lunch. It gave guests the opportunity to buy a shahtoosh, a shawl that justifies its name, "King of Wool," by reputedly being both light enough to pass through a wedding ring and warm enough to hatch a pigeon's egg. "Shahtooshes are so utterly tightly woven of this wonderful, thin wool," enthuses Kempner. "We started wearing them when people were harassed about wearing fur."

But the guests and other glitterati who have bought shahtooshes have endured far more than a few pints of fake blood: Christie Brinkley, Blaine Trump and a host of other customers were reportedly summoned before a federal grand jury this summer to hear the bad news that the scarves--which can fetch up to $15,000--are not just wretchedly expensive; they're also illegal. "I was told that the hair came from the chin of the ibex goat," says Kempner. "That [the goats] rubbed it into the rocks and villagers picked it up and wove it into shawls." That is a quaint--and popular--delusion. The wool of a goat is combed and woven into pashminas. But the superior wool of shahtooshes is harvested from dead chirus, an endangered antelope that resides on the Tibetan plateau. An estimated three to five chirus are killed for each shawl.

Most experts believe that only 50,000 to 70,000 chirus remain, down from well over a million earlier this century. In 1975 a U.N. convention forbade all trade in the species. But that hasn't stopped the killing of thousands in recent years. Poachers armed with semiautomatics hunt the animal year-round, and not just when the chirus' coats are thickest. Despite the threat of seven years in jail or a $130 fine, poachers continue to pursue their prey.

The wool is smuggled to and woven in Kashmir, an Indian state that does not abide by the U.N. treaty. Shahtooshes have been the raiment of the elite there for centuries, presented to brides-to-be in wealthy Indian families. And in France, Napoleon is said to have given one to Josephine, who was so enthralled that she bought 400 more. The West didn't fully embrace shahtooshes until the 1980s, when fur went out and designers began dying the shawls in appealing colors. Before long, Park Avenue hostesses were selling them and Donna Karan was confiding to British Vogue that a shahtoosh was her security blanket. (Both she and Brinkley have since renounced shahtooshes.)

"Any woman who wears a shahtoosh should be deeply embarrassed," says George Schaller, a renowned biologist who has called attention to the plight of the chirus. "It's not a shawl; it's a shroud." Shame might not stop the trade, but this will: at the current rate of poaching, the species is likely to be extinct within 20 years.

--With reporting by Ruth Chan/Beijing and Terry McCarthy/Shanghai

With reporting by Ruth Chan/Beijing and Terry McCarthy/Shanghai