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Cashmere is a highly sought-after 100% natural fibre. Cashmere fibres are produced by goats. Cashmere is used mainly for fine coat, dress, and suit fabrics and for high-quality knitwear and hosiery. Animal-hair fibre forming the downy undercoat of the Kashmir goat and belonging to the group of textile fibres called specialty hair fibre.
Most cashmere is produced in the high plateaus of Asia, namely countries such as Mongolia, Southwest China, Afghanistan, Tibet, Iran, Northern India and Pakistan. New Zealand and Australia also produce cashmere, but not on a comparable scale.
The word cashmere invokes thoughts of luxury and softness for almost everyone, but what about thoughts of breath-taking faraway mountains, and the rare, beautiful textiles produced there? Because, although the end product we see is usually soft, delicate and refined, each of those fibres has taken a long and arduous journey characterised by meticulous care, collection, sorting, spinning and weaving.
Put simply, cashmere is expensive because it is beautiful, rare and has unique qualities that make it prized above other fibres. Cashmere is produced in vastly smaller volumes than other fibres such as wool - compare an annual worldwide wool production of around 1–2 million metric tonnes, with anywhere from 4 000-10 000 metric tonnes of cashmere produced annually
Apart from its incredible softness making int incredibly comfortable to wear, cashmere has other special qualities that set it apart, including being a 100 per cent natural fibre. lothes made from cashmere have a better warmth-to-weight ratio than fibres produced by other animals, such as sheep or camels. Cashmere yarn can be up to eight times warmer than clothes made from sheep wool, while remaining much lighter in weight. Because the fibre is crimped it has 'loft' that provides warmth without weight.
