Thank you to the person who wrote in regarding the blog and winter clothing in the 18th century. Unfortunately the comment went into oblivion while I was trying to publish it!

Re the old imagery unfortunately it is very difficult to get what common folk wore since most of the old art focusses on royalty, courtesans etc.  Of course these paintings often have “sakhis” or servants etc which gives some clues on differing attire. But it is hard to tell what material is used. Coarse wools and wool-cotton mixes were known so perhaps those would be more commonly used? There was a brisk wool trade between Tibet/Ladakh/Kashmir/Kullu around the time but a lot of this was also complicated by local history and changing fortunes – in any even it does appear that quantities of wool did make their way to North India to be turned into finished garments. The wool and design may not have been fine of course like with Pashmina.

Not specific to the 18th century but I think I have some written notes on wool types in ancient India etc and could dig that up for you.