Is A Scarf and A Shawl the Same Thing?

How to differentiate a shawl scarf from a neckerchief or a stole? The scarf factory explains everything. The scarves have multiple designations because they have different uses, different materials, or even different shapes and sizes How to differentiate them and what are their particularities? How to choose the right product? What names should be given to each product? Many customers contact us, they can't tell the difference between a cheche, scarf, stole, shawl, and scarf. Today with our experience we will try to answer it After several generations of expert craftsmen in this field, our know-how highlights 4 differentiation criteria:

The Scarf

The word scarf is the generic word that designates a scarf, a cheche, a stole, a shawl, a snood. However, the differences to note for a scarf compared to other accessories are mainly the material and the size of the fabric, it will especially be a fairly thick fabric, such as pure wool or mixtures of wool and silk, wool and cotton, we will also remember the shape which will always be rectangular with a width ranging from 40 to 70 cm and a length ranging from 150 to 180 cm.

The scarf must keep warm and therefore will be worn especially in Winter, we are talking about large scarves to accompany sporty and casual outfits, on a jacket, but also for example on a coat to bring an elegant touch, both for women than for men. For example, La Afrique declare offers the VARANASI scarf easy to wear over a coat.

The Stole

We can say that it is a larger scarf, we range from 70 x 180 cm up to 90 x 190 cm for the largest stoles. The word stole is also used for large scarves in noble materials such as Cashmere or Yak, or with blends mostly with silk. We also differentiate a stole by the way it is worn, we wear a stole draped over the shoulders, so we wrap it up like a plaid, we can wear a stole like a scarf, for the chilly who want to stay warm, and keep a good thickness of fabric around the neck. We also notice that we call a stole, a wide scarf in a very vaporous light material, worn on the shoulders for ceremonies, weddings, baptisms or for evenings on cocktail dresses.

The Shawl

The real difference or particularity of a Shawl is its size, even larger than a stole, a shawl is very large, for example 1m x 2m, it can be square like our Prestige model in 140x 140cm, the shawl is very effective against the cold because of its large size and the second difference is its material which is rather thick and often woolly, it is found in 100% wool or mixed with wool. It can be worn wrapped around the neck as a shawl or thrown over the shoulders like a poncho. Of course, the shawl keeps you very warm, it is perfect for very cold weather and essential for the Autumn-Winter season.

Read More: cashmere shawls and stoles