Cashmere Explained: What Makes 100% Cashmere Special

Cashmere is a fine fibre from the undercoat of cashmere goats. Here is what the label means, based on Wikipedia.

Where it comes from

The goat’s fleece is double-layered: a fine, soft undercoat and a coarser outer guard hair. China is the largest producer of raw cashmere, at about 19,200 metric tons in 2016, followed by Mongolia at about 8,900 tons.

What the label means

Under US labelling law, a product can be labelled cashmere only if its average fibre diameter does not exceed 19 microns, the variation around that average does not exceed 24 percent, and no more than 3 percent of fibres by weight exceed 30 microns.

How it is collected

Cashmere is gathered during the spring moulting season. Combing gives a higher yield of pure cashmere than shearing, and hand-removing the undercoat produces finer fibre. Dehairing mechanically separates coarse hairs from the fine down.

History

The word comes from Kashmir. Scotland’s Henry Houldsworth and Sons began making cashmere yarn in 1832, and Bernhard Altmann brought cashmere to the US on a mass scale from 1947.

Always check the fibre content label when you buy.

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