The soft gold fiber: Cashmere

What is cashmere fiber?

• Cashmere fiber is most commonly known as cashmere or cashmere wool. The fiber is collected from goats, mainly from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and also from some other breeds of goats.

• The word “cashmere” is obtained from an anglicization of Kashmir, India and this happened when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century from Colonial India.

• Cashmere fiber is an animal fiber in the group of specialty animal fiber. It is one of the rarest specialty fiber in the world. Due to its high-value, it is also called “diamond fiber” and “soft gold” fiber.

History of cashmere fiber: when the production started?

• There are many stories about how people started using the coat of Cashmere goat. But according to most of the sources, the origin of cashmere fiber is Mongolia. In the 13th century, Marco Polo discovered some representation of domesticated wild goats, in the caves of Mongolia.

• Another popular notion says that, when Saint Ali Hamadani visited Ladakh in the 14th century, he discovered the quality, fineness, and warmth of the fur of Ladakh goats. It is also said that he combed some goat hair, made a pair of socks, and gifted them to Sultan Qutubdin. Sultan was amazed by the quality of the fiber. Then according to Ali Hamadani’s suggestion, the sultan started shawl weaving in Kashmir.

• France is the first European country to start cashmere fiber spinning commercially. They used to import down coat from Tibet. At that time, the woven shawl was the main product. The French shawl had a different pattern on each side, unlike cashmere shawl.

• By the 18th and 19th century, Kashmir was thriving in cashmere shawl production. Eventually, the shawl was in traduced in Western Europe and there it became an immediate sensation.

Cashmere producing countries:

• There are a number of countries that are producing cashmere fiber and also processing the fiber for end-use.

• China, Mongolia are two major producers of cashmere wool. Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and some other countries.

• China is the largest producer of cashmere providing 70% output. Mongolia is in the second position providing 20% output. These two countries have the most suitable climate and topography for cashmere fiber production. Due to its high economic value, recently some western countries like- Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, USA have also started cashmere production.    

Cashmere Vs. wool:

When we talk about wool, we understand wool from a sheep, like- Marino wool. But people often think that cashmere fiber is a type of wool. But cashmere fiber is a straight specialty animal hair fiber that is much different from the wool fiber.

• Cashmere fiber has almost three times more insulating capacity then sheep wool fiber.

• Cashmere fiber is loftier, which gives a softer feel to the fiber.

• Cashmere fiber lasts longer and has a greater pilling resistant.

• Cashmere fiber is finer than wool fiber.

• Cashmere fiber is more expensive than wool fiber.

Types of cashmere coat:

• As we know, cashmere fiber is collected from cashmere goats. Cashmere goats have an outer coat and an inner coat.

• The purpose of the outer coat is to provide protection. The fiber has a length of 4-20 cm (1.5-8 inches). As the outer coat is rough, they are used in brushes and other non- apparel purposes.

• The purpose of the downy undercoat is to provide warmth, the undercoat fibers are finer, softer, and ranges from 2.5-9 cm (1-3.5 inches). This undercoat hair and guard hair is used for textiles.

The collection process of cashmere fiber:

• The best quality cashmere is obtained from the neck region of the goat. Only the down fiber is used for textile products. The fur is either combed or plucked in spring with is their molting season and goats naturally shed their winter coat. But in the northern hemisphere, molting is done from March to May. Iranian cashmere, unlike the others, is obtained by shearing.

• As goats are grazing animals, their fur contains a lot of vegetable matter and grease. At first, these impurities are removed by various mechanical processes. Then the finer and coarser hair means the undercoat, and the upper coat is separated. All these processing can reduce the final production quantity by 50%. Generally, only 5% of the fiber is high-quality fine fiber.

• The annual yield per animal mat range from a few grams to half grams. A sweater requires coat of 4-6 animals and an overcoat production requires 30-40 animal coat.

Care requirements of cashmere products:

Washing:

• Do not use washing machines for cashmere fabric. Cashmere garment is pretty delicate and machine washing can damage the fiber.

• Do not use any hard detergent or soap. It will degrade the quality of the fiber.

• At first fill a bowl with lukewarm water (30-32⁰ C).

• Use small amount of gentle detergent. Now a days there are even shampoos that are designed for theses kinds if delicate fibers.

• Fully dissolve the detergent and then dip in the garment.

• Turn inside out before washing it.

• Wash the garments separately.

• Try to spot clean as much as possible.

 

Drying:

• Never squeeze the garment.

• Do not tumble dry your garment this can destroy its shape.

• Dry it on a flat surface.

Area wise quality breakdown of cashmere fiber: 

Mongolia:

Color: Blue-violet.
Length: 30 mm
Diameter: 14-19 micron
 

Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, central and west Asia:

Color: Velvet to dark
Diameter: Short
(Afghan fiber: 16.5 -17.5 micron
Iranian fiber: 17.5 -19 micron)
Hand feel: coarser
 

Russia:

Diameter: 19.5 micron

Turkey:

Diameter: 16-17 micron

Australia:

Diameter: 16.5-16.9 micron

China:

Color: White
Length: 34-42 mm
Diameter: 13-15 micron

Tibet:

Diameter: 14.8 micron
Length: 34mm