The history & tradition of cashmere

Cashmere comes from the cashmere goat, which winters on the high plateaus of Central Asia — at temperatures down to minus 30 degrees. Its fine undercoat is the fiber in question. Everything else in this story follows from that winter.

The goat and its winter

Against the cold, the goat grows a second coat beneath its coarse outer hair: short, dense, finer than anything else in the animal world that exists in this quantity. The harder the winter, the finer the fiber. That is why the best cashmere comes from the coldest regions — Mongolia, northern China, the highlands between India and Pakistan.

Combed, not shorn

In spring, when the goat sheds its undercoat, it is combed out — by hand, animal by animal. Shearing would mix outer hair and undercoat. One goat yields around 150 grams of usable down a year. A sweater takes the fleece of several animals; so does a large scarf. That is the reason cashmere is rare, and the reason for its price.

Where the name comes from

The name goes back to the region of Kashmir, where the shawls were woven — in the Himalayas, between India, Pakistan and China. The fiber came from the plateaus beyond; the weavers of Kashmir turned it into what Europe would later know as “cashmere”: finely woven shawls with patterns woven in.

The golden age

Under the Mughal emperors in the 16th and 17th centuries, Kashmir shawls became trade goods along the Silk Road. A single shawl could mean months of work; the patterns were so fine they looked the same from both sides. They were worn at court and given as gifts — a sign that one could afford it.

From the highlands to Europe

Trade routes brought the cloth to Europe in the 18th century, where it became a status piece: shawls that were passed down. In Paris and London they were so sought after that weavers in Scotland began copying the patterns — in the town of Paisley, whose name has stuck to the pattern ever since. The original remained the original: cashmere from the highlands, combed by hand.

From shawl to knit

Woven, cashmere was a shawl. It was only knitted once spinning mills in Europe began plying the fiber into yarn in the 19th and 20th centuries — in Scotland, later in Italy. The shawl became the sweater, the status piece became a garment. What remained is the rule that a good piece lasts for decades.

Today

Good cashmere is traceable: from the herd to the spinning mill to the finished piece. Our yarn carries a code that lets you trace where it comes from — which region, which mill. That isn’t nostalgia; it is the only way to be sure that “100% cashmere” contains the fiber you are paying for. How to recognize good cashmere.

What remains

A piece of cashmere is made today just as it was two hundred years ago: one goat, one winter, one comb. What you hold in your hands has the same origin as the shawls people once passed down. Treat it that way — and it lasts that long.