About Cashmere..and pashminas

Most of us know roughly what cashmere is, and how great it is. We have used the same headings as the "Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute" to try to give you the best information about what cashmere actually is.

The Capra-Hircus Goat
(the source of all cashmere)

Classification - Speciality Hair Fibre.

Source - The Capra-Hircus goat , also known as the Cashmere (or Kashmir) goat. It comes from the fine underlayer of hair. The rougher outer hair is called guard hair. It's quite amazing when you feel one of these goats, they feel quite rough, but if you put your finger deeper in to the hair, then you get to an smazingly soft layer near to the goats skin.

Natural Colors - Gray, brown and white. Cashmere can be dyed equally as well as sheeps wool.

Geographic Origin - The Himalayas, Mongolia, Tibet and the Karakoram Mountains.

Gathering Process - The goats are not killed (they are too valuable). The fibres are collected during the molting seasons when the animals natural shed their hairs. In China the animals are combed to collect the hair, and they are shearedin Afghanistan, New Zealand and Australia.

Production - The finest hairs are seperated by a mechanical process known as 'dehairing'.

Annual Yield - Up to one pound (454g) of fibre per goat with an average of 4-6ounces (108-162g) of under down.

Feel - Luxuriously soft, with high napability and loft.

Warmth - Natural lightweight warmth without bulk. It really is incredible.Extremely warm to protect goats from cold mountain temperatures. Fibers are highly adaptable and are easily constructed into fine or thick yarns, and light to heavy-weight fabrics. Appropriate for all climates. A high moisture content allows insulation properties to change with the relative humidity in the air.

Best Blends - Pure virgin fiber or blended with wool only. Blends with nylon or tri-blends with wool and nylon in woven patterns may indicate the use of inferior quality recycled fiber. Nylon, however, is used with virgin quality cashmere in hosiery and some other knitted products. We use pure cashmere in most of our knitwear. We use 30% Silk in the Ladies halterneck top, as the design demands it.

We test our cashmere regularly at TFT Ilkley, a testing facility approved by the CCMI.

Click HERE to view our latest test certificates. We are part of Mypashmina UK. (www.mypashmina.co.uk)

ABOUT PASHMINAS

What is pashmina? Is it a fibre, a type of cloth or style of scarf?

This is a surprisingly tricky question and we hope to answer it here.

Pashmina used to be the term for the very finest cashmere, that taken from the inner fur from the neck of the goat. 'Pashm' comes from a sanskrit word meaning inner coat (with regards to an animals fur).

Now, it seems, that the word pashmina is taken to mean a large scarf or shawl which can be made of anything from alpaca to viscose.

The Cashmere & Camel Hair Institute say that it is not acceptable to label items x% pashmina , but that they must be labelled x% cashmere.

So how to do we distinguish between different grades of cashmere?

The finest cashmere is under 15 microns. Many people would call this pashmina. We have had our pashminas tested and the fibre width is about 14.5microns. Standard, good quality cashmere is about 18 microns.

The conclusion is our pashminas are high grade genuine pashminas made from the finest Cashmere and high quality silk.

If you need any reassurance about the quality of our products, please read the customer comments. We receive 2 or 3 compliments everyday from satisfied customers. see them HERE.

We have many different styles in stock ready for delivery in 1-3 days and many more in our UK warehouse available for delivery in about 5 days. We also have many different styles which you can have especially made to order. It only takes 3 weeks.

We sell two types of classic pashminas - 70/30 and 100%. Both are 2 ply. The 70/30 type is made from 70% Cashmere and 30% Silk. The Cashmere is the finest quality available (so we call it pashmina cashmere), and the silk is 210 quality.

The 100% type is made from 100% Pure Cashmere of the finest quality, so we call is pashmina cashmere.

Click HERE to view our range where you can find out more information about the different types.