Cashmere wool

Cashmere wool, usually simply known as

cashmere, is a fiber obtained from
cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and
some other breeds of goat. It has been
used to make yarn, textiles and clothing
for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely
associated with the Kashmir shawl, the
word "cashmere" deriving from an
anglicisation of Kashmir when the Kashmir
shawl reached Europe in the 19th century
from Colonial India. Common usage
defines the fiber as wool, but it is finer,
stronger, lighter, softer and approximately
three times more insulating than sheep
wool.[1] Both the soft undercoat and the
guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is
reserved for textiles, while the coarse
guard hair is used for brushes and other
non-apparel purposes.
Cashmere scarves

A number of countries produce cashmere

and have improved processing techniques
over the years, but China and Mongolia are
two of the leading producers as of 2019.

Some yarns and clothing marketed as

containing cashmere have been found to
contain little to no cashmere fiber, so more
stringent testing has been requested to
make sure items are fairly represented.[2][3]
Poor land management and overgrazing to
increase production of the valuable fiber
has resulted in the decimation and
transformation of grasslands into deserts
in Asia, increasing local temperatures and
causing air pollution which has traveled to
the Americas.[4][5]

Sources

Pashmina goats, Ladakh, India

Cashmere wool fiber for clothing and other

textile articles is obtained from the neck
region of Cashmere. Historically, fine-
haired Cashmere goats have been called
Capra hircus laniger, as if they were a
subspecies of the domestic goat Capra
hircus. However, they are now more
commonly considered part of the
domestic goat subspecies Capra aegagrus
hircus or the alternate version Hircus Blythi
Goat. Cashmere goats produce a double
fleece that consists of a fine, soft
undercoat or underdown of hair mingled
with a straighter and much coarser outer
coating of hair called guard hair. For the
fine underdown to be sold and processed
further, it must be de-haired. De-hairing is a
mechanical process that separates the
coarse hairs from the fine hair. After de-
hairing, the resulting "cashmere" is ready
to be dyed and converted into textile yarn,
fabrics and garments.

Gathering

Cashmere shearing. Corindhap, Australia.

Cashmere wool is collected during the
spring moulting season when the goats
naturally shed their winter coat. In the
Northern Hemisphere, the goats moult as
early as March and as late as May.

In some regions, the mixed mass of down

and coarse hair is removed by hand with a
coarse comb that pulls tufts of fiber from
the animal as the comb is raked through
the fleece. The collected fiber then has a
higher yield of pure cashmere after the
fiber has been washed and dehaired. The
long, coarse guard hair is then typically
clipped from the animal and is often used
for brushes, interfacings and other non-
apparel uses. Animals in Iran, Afghanistan,
New Zealand, and Australia are typically
shorn of their fleece, resulting in a higher
coarse hair content and lower pure
cashmere yield. In America, the most
popular method is combing. The process
takes up to two weeks, but with a trained
eye for when the fiber is releasing, it is
possible to comb the fibers out in about a
week. The term "baby cashmere" is used
for fibres harvested from younger goats,
and has a reputation of being softer.

Production
An 1867 William Simpson painting depicting men
manufacturing shawls using pashm wool

China has become the largest producer of

raw cashmere, estimated at 19,200 metric
tons (in hair) per year(2016). Mongolia
follows with 8,900 tons (in hair) as of
2016,[6] while Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey,
Kyrgyzstan[7] and other Central Asian
republics produce lesser amounts. The
annual world clip is estimated to be
between 15,000 and 20,000 tons (13,605
and 18,140 tonnes) (in hair). Pure
cashmere, resulting from removing animal
grease, dirt and coarse hairs from the
fleece, is estimated at about 6,500 tons
(5,895 tonnes). Ultra-fine Cashmere or
Pashmina is still produced by
communities in Kashmir but its rarity and
high price, along with political instability in
the region, make it very hard to source and
to regulate quality. It is estimated that on
average yearly production per goat is 150
grams (0.33 lb).

Pure cashmere can be dyed and spun into

yarns and knitted into jumpers (sweaters),
hats, gloves, socks and other clothing, or
woven into fabrics then cut and
assembled into garments such as outer
coats, jackets, trousers (pants), pajamas,
scarves, blankets, and other items. Fabric
and garment producers in Scotland, Italy,
and Japan have long been known as
market leaders. Cashmere may also be
blended with other fibers to bring the
garment cost down, or to gain their
properties, such as elasticity from wool, or
sheen from silk.

The town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, in

the United States was an incubator for the
cashmere wool industry. It had the first
power looms for woolens and the first
manufacture of "satinets". Capron Mill had
the first power looms, in 1820. It burned on
July 21, 2007, in the Bernat Mill fire.

In the United States, under the U.S. Wool

Products Labeling Act of 1939, as
amended, (15 U. S. Code Section 68b(a)
(6)), a wool or textile product may be
labelled as containing cashmere only if the
following criteria are met:

such wool product is the fine (dehaired)

undercoat fibers produced by a
cashmere goat (Capra hircus laniger);
the average diameter of the fiber of such
wool product does not exceed 19
microns; and
 such wool product does not contain
more than 3 percent (by weight) of
cashmere fibers with average diameters
that exceed 30 microns.
The average fiber diameter may be
subject to a coefficient of variation
around the mean that shall not exceed
24 percent.[8]

Types of fiber
Raw – fiber that has not been processed
and is essentially straight from the
animal
Processed – fiber that has been through
the processes of de-hairing, washing,
 carding, and is ready either to spin or to
knit/crochet/weave
Virgin – new fiber made into yarns,
fabrics, or garments for the first time
Recycled – fibers reclaimed from scraps
or fabrics that were previously woven or
felted, and may or may not have been
previously used by the consumer from
various parts of the world.

History
A boy's frock produced circa 1855 in Kashmir;
cashmere wool twill with silk embroidery and silk
tassels.

Cashmere has been manufactured in

Mongolia, Nepal and Kashmir for
thousands of years. The fiber is also
known as pashm (Persian for wool) or
pashmina (Persian/Urdu word derived
from Pashm) for its use in the handmade
shawls of Kashmir.[9] References to
woolen shawls appear in texts surviving
from between the 3rd century BC and the
11th century AD.[10] However, a popular
notion in Kashmir is that it was the 15th-
century ruler of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abidin,
who founded the local wool industry by
bringing weavers from Turkestan.[10]
Another local tradition sees the founder of
all Kashmiri crafts in the famous 14th
century saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani
who, tradition goes, brought 700
craftsmen from Persia to Kashmir.[11]
When Ali Hamadani visited Ladakh he
discovered for the first time in history the
warmth and fineness of Ladakh goat
wool.[12] He combed some goat wool and
made a pair of socks with his own hands.
Afterwards he gifted those socks to the
king of Kashmir, Sultan Qutubdin (1374-89
AD).[13] Sultan was amazed by their
durability and fineness.[12] Ali Hamadani
brought some raw goat wool from Ladakh
and suggested the king to start shawl
weaving in Kashmir. That was the starting
point of the usage of the cashmere wool.

Trading in commercial quantities of raw

cashmere between Asia and Europe began
with Valerie Audresset SA, Louviers,
France, claiming to be the first European
company to commercially spin
cashmere.[14] The down was imported
from Tibet through Kazan, the capital of
the Russian province of Volga, and was
used in France to create imitation woven
shawls. Unlike the Kashmir shawls, the
French shawls had a different pattern on
each side.[15] The imported cashmere was
spread out on large sieves and beaten with
sticks to open the fibers and clear away
the dirt. After opening, the cashmere was
washed and children removed the coarse
hair. The down was then carded and
combed using the same methods used for
worsted spinning.[16][17]

In the 18th and early 19th centuries,

Kashmir (then called cashmere by the
British) had a thriving industry producing
shawls from goat down imported from
Tibet and Tartary through Ladakh. The
down trade was controlled by treaties
signed as a result of previous wars[18] The
Shawls were introduced into western
Europe when the General in Chief of the
French campaign in Egypt (1799-1802)
sent one to Paris. The shawl's arrival is
said to have created an immediate
sensation and plans were put in place to
start manufacturing the product in
France.[19]

In 1799 at his factory in Reims, William-

Louis Ternaux, the leading woolens
manufacturer in France under Napoleon,
began to produce imitation India shawls
(cachemires) using the wool of Spanish
merino sheep. By 1811, with government
assistance, Ternaux also began
experimenting with the production of real
India shawls using what he called laine de
Perse, i.e., the down (duvet) of Tibetan-
cashmere goats.[20] In 1818, Ternaux
resolved to help establish herds of
cashmere goats in France. A famous
expedition to Persia was organized, led by
the orientalist and diplomat Pierre Amédée
Jaubert, to be financed in part by the
French government. Of the acquired herd
of 1,500 animals, only 256 arrived safely in
the spring of 1819 at Marseilles and
Toulon via the Crimea. About 100 of the
cashmere goats were then purchased by
the French government (at 2,000 francs
each) and sent to the royal sheep farm at
Perpignan. The remainder, about 180
including new-borns, went to Ternaux's
property at Saint-Ouen outside Paris.[21]
Although Ternaux had little success
getting small farmers to add cashmeres to
their sheep herds, a few wealthy
landowners were willing to experiment
with the goats. For example, Ternaux's
herd was seen in 1823 by C.T.Tower of
Weald Hall, Essex, England. Tower
purchased two female and two male goats
and took them back to England, wherein
1828 he was awarded a gold medal by the
Society for the Encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce for rearing a
herd of cashmeres. Also, a few of
Ternaux's goats were purchased for a
model farm at Grignon, near Versailles, run
by M. Polonceau. Polonceau crossbred the
cashmeres with Angora goats to improve
the down for spinning and weaving. This
Cashmere-Angora herd was seen by
William Riley of New South Wales in 1828,
and again in 1831 when Riley purchased
thirteen of the goats for trans-shipment to
Australia. At the time, the average
production of the Polonceau herd was 16
ounces (500 grams) of down. Ternaux's
herd at St. Ouen still numbered 150 when
the famous industrialist died in 1833. The
herd at Perpignan died out by
1829.[22][23][24]

By 1830, weaving cashmere shawls with

French-produced yarn had become an
important Scottish industry. The Scottish
Board of Trustees for the Encouragement
of Arts and Manufactures offered a 300
pound sterling reward to the first person
who could spin cashmere in Scotland
based on the French system. Captain
Charles Stuart Cochrane collected the
required information while in Paris and
received a Scottish patent for the process
in 1831. In the autumn of 1831, he sold the
patent to Henry Houldsworth and sons of
Glasgow. In 1832 Henry Houldsworth and
sons commenced the manufacture of
yarn, and in 1833 received the reward.[25]

Dawson International claim to have

invented the first commercial dehairing
machine in 1890, and from 1906 they
purchased cashmere from China, but were
restricted to purchasing fiber from Beijing
and Tianjin until 1978. In 1978 trade was
liberalised and Dawson International
began buying cashmere from many
provinces.[14]
Many early textile centers developed as
part of the American Industrial Revolution.
Among them, the Blackstone Valley
became a major contributor to the
American Industrial Revolution. The town
of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, became an
early textile center in the Blackstone
Valley, which was known for the
manufacture of cashmere wool and
satinets.

Austrian Textile Manufacturer Bernhard

Altmann is credited with bringing
cashmere to the United States of America
on a mass scale beginning in 1947.[26]
Criticism
The production of cashmere wool has
been criticized for the detrimental
environmental effects directly resulting
from raising the herds. Due to the way the
goats destroy the plants they eat, by
pulling them up by the roots rather than
grazing the tops, as well as having sharp
hooves that pierce the grounds they tread,
the high demand for cashmere is causing
grasslands in China and Mongolia to
disappear, air pollution to increase, and the
herds to starve.[4][5] Factories in Alashan
are forced to close several days a week
due to water rationing as the deserts there
expand 400 miles a year. As of 2016, the
degradation of 65% of the grasslands in
the area has been linked to a four-degree
Fahrenheit increase in the temperature of
Mongolia, three degrees higher than
temperatures in other areas of the world.
With proper management, the grasslands
could recover in the space of ten years.
Mitigation efforts include changing trades,
grazing bans, hand-feeding the goats, and
attempting to convince Mongolian herders
to raise yaks or camels instead of or in
addition to fewer goats, as the hair from
these animals is also valuable and their
impact on grasslands is less.[4][5]
Air pollution, caused by the combination of
heavy coal use creating atmospheric
particulates and the desert dust storms
resulting from disappearing grasslands in
China and Mongolia, crosses the Pacific
Ocean to the Americas. Health officials in
Canada, China, Mongolia, and the US have
had to issue air quality warnings to the
public.[4]

The demand for the fiber has caused

some vendors, both knowingly and not, to
sell yarns or textiles containing little to no
cashmere[2] representing themselves as
being composed of cashmere. Wool and
other fibers have been mixed in by
unscrupulous manufacturers, deliberately
selling mislabeled items to well-known
department stores. Complaints of
mislabeling after testing for cashmere
content were reported by the Cashmere
and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute to
the Federal Trade Commission, leading to
more stringent examination of cashmere
products.[3]

See also
Cameline
Pashmina
Shahtoosh
International Year of Natural Fibres
References
1. Von Bergen, 1963
2. Browning, John (October 21, 2015). "A
Yarn Spun, But Advertising Not
Tailored to a Lanham Act Claim" . The
National Law Review. Retrieved
August 10, 2019.
3. Beatty, Sally; Choi, Hae Won
(December 23, 2004). "The Cashmere
Police Crack Down" . The Wall Street
Journal. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
4. Osnos, Evan (December 16, 2006).
"Your cheap sweater's real cost" .
Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 10,
2019.
5. Schmitz, Rob (December 9, 2016).
"How Your Cashmere Sweater Is
Decimating Mongolia's Grasslands" .
NPR. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
. National Statistical Office of Mongolia,
2015, http://nso.mn
7. Toigonbaev, Sabyr (18 March 2015).
"The finer, the better" . D+C
Development and Cooperation. 42 (4).
Retrieved 9 June 2015.
. "Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939
(15 U.S.C. § 68)" . Federal Trade
Commission. Retrieved 13 January
2009.
 9. Encyclopædia Britannica (2008).
cashmere.
10. Encyclopædia Britannica (2008).
kashmir shawl.
11. Sheraza Number (2004). Kashmir
Academy Arts and Culture.(ed.),
Jeelani Allaie
12. Zutshi, Chitralekha (2014). Kashmir's
Contested Pasts: Narratives,
Geographies, and the Historical
Imagination. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0199089369.
13. Rafiabadi, Hamid Naseem (2005).
Saints and Saviours of Islam. Sarup &
Sons. ISBN 8176255556.
14. McGregor, Bruce Allan (August 2002).
Australian Cashmere Attributes and
Processing (PDF) (Report). Rural
Industries Research and Development
Corporation. p. 10. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 2009-09-26.
Retrieved 2008-07-21.
15. George Ripley and Charles A. Dana, ed.
(1861). "Cashmere" . The New
American Cyclopedia. IV. New York: D.
Appleton & Company. p. 514.
Retrieved August 17, 2010.
1 . Newton, W. (1836). The London
Journal of Arts and Sciences and
Repertory of Arts And Sciences and
Repertory of Patent Inventions. p.423.
17. Gilroy, Clinton G. (1844). The Art of
Weaving, by Hand and by Power, With
an Introductory Account of Its Rise
and Progress in Ancient and Modern
Times. New York: George D. Baldwin.
pp. 270-71.
1 . Bell, James (1829). A System of
Geography Popular and Scientific or a
Physical, Political and Statistical
Account of the World and Its Various
Divisions. London.
19. "Cashmere", The New American
Cyclopedia, IV (1861), p.514.
20. Ternaux, William (1819). "Notice sur
l'importation en France des chèvres à
laine de cachemire, originaires du
Thibet", Bulletin de la société pour
l'industrie, XVIII.
21. Ternaux, William (1822). Recueil des
pièces sur l'importation et
naturalisation en France par MM.
Ternaux et Jaubert des chèvres de
race thibetaine, ou chèvres à duvet de
Cachemire. Paris.
22. Southey, Thomas (1851). The Rise,
Progress and Present State of Colonial
Sheep & Wools. London: Effingham
Wilson.
23. "On the Cashmere-Angora Shawl
Goat", in American Journal of Science
and Art, vol 25 (January 1834)
24. "Cashmere Shawls, Part II", Saturday
Magazine, Vol 19 (London 1841), 13-
14.
25. The Ministers of the respective
parishes (1854). The New Statistical
Account of Scotland, Volume VI .
Edinburgh and London: William
Blackwood & sons. p. 168.
 2 . "Vintage Fashion Guild : Label
Resource : Altmann, Bernhard" .
vintagefashionguild.org.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Cashmere wool.

Cashmere is Scottish (1973) , an archive

film featuring Joanna Lumley. From the
Scottish Screen Archive at National
Library of Scotland

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