Cashmere, also known as "soft gold", has such a name because it is rare. When it comes to price, it naturally has such a good name.

Every winter, goats grow a thin layer of fuzz at the base of their hair that is close to their skin. The following spring, when the weather warms up, it naturally falls off, and this layer of fuzz is called Cashmere.

The Origin of Cashmere

Cashmere originated from the cold and barren northern slopes of the Himalayas, the farthest end of the earth, and migrated with Chinese herdsmen to Inner Mongolia and northern provinces of China between the 11th and 13th centuries. As Mongolian leaders Kublai Khan and Genghis Khan built their Asian empires, cashmere slowly entered trade routes with the West, but remained very rare. It has hardly ever appeared in Western historical records.

Ancient legends

It is said that tools used for shearing around 2300 BC were discovered during archaeological studies in Mesopotamia, and cashmere fabric dating back to around 200 AD was discovered in Syria. However, written records of cashmere did not exist before the 16th century.

But there have been several legends about cashmere, the most famous of which is that the lining of the Ark (the box in which Moses placed the Ten Commandments in the Bible) is made of cashmere; Legend has it that cashmere was once known as the "King of Clothes" in ancient Rome due to the love of the Roman nobility.

As early as 5500 years ago, the wise Chinese ancestors began herding sheep and learned to use their fur to keep warm and warm, or as decorative items.

There is a record of "sheep" in oracle bone inscriptions, but there is no distinction between sheep and goats. It was not until around the Spring and Autumn period that there was a difference in writing between sheep and goats. Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty annotated in "Er Ya": "Sheep refers to sheep, while Xia sheep refers to goats.".

William Simpson's painting depicts a man making a shawl

In the Tang Dynasty of China, the cashmere cloth woven from the fine and soft "inner hair" of goats was called "velvet brown", which was both light and warm and loved by people. In the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" of the Ming Dynasty, the method of producing cashmere fabric was also described: using fingers to "pluck the wool", and then "thread and weave velvet brown".

The emergence of shawl form

Cashmere products first appeared in the form of shawls. It is said that the creator of cashmere shawls was Zanul Abidir, the ruler of Kashmir in the 15th century, who was famous for vigorously promoting art and culture.

He is keen on combining the greatest artists and materials. Abidir invited artists and skilled Türkiye weavers to use cashmere purchased from Xizang to weave wearable works of art for him. As a result, the luxury, soft and warm cashmere shawl that never appeared before was born.

This extremely rare and luxurious item has become a symbol of wealth and status in Britain - having a shawl is having the ostentatious capital of having a successful husband in the secular sense.

At the beginning of the birth of cashmere shawls, these expensive and luxurious works of art were reserved only for Kashmir princes and Xizang eminent monks to withstand the cold during meditation.

Later, local nobles used cashmere shawls as precious gifts to give to the bride on the wedding day, which later formed a custom. During the wedding, the cashmere shawl was worn on the wedding ring in hopes of bringing good luck and became a fixed program.

In the 17th century, on the distant European continent, Napoleon of France brought back a beautiful cashmere shawl from the East from Asia during his expedition and gave it to his beloved Queen Josephine.

Portrait of Lady Recamier in 1805 (wearing a yellow Pashmina shawl)

Josephine couldn't let go of the cashmere shawl, which not only had a good texture, but also had a prominent color. Quickly, the charm of cashmere spread among the European aristocracy and is still popular today.

The greatest promoter of cashmere pop culture, Emperor Napoleon of France and Empress Josephine, became the most famous "cashmere lords" in history. The cashmere shawl that Napoleon brought back was not located in a country thousands of miles away, but actually in our country.

The Road to Industrialization

The first milestone figure in the industrialization process of cashmere was the owner of a Scottish mill, who invented the first lint free separator and established the first enterprise to produce cashmere yarn.

The other is Baron Ellen Smith, who formed Dawson International Group and built a one-stop cashmere industry aircraft carrier from raw material processing, spinning, to garment production.

Cashmere meets high-end fashion

It was not until the late 19th century that the enthusiasm for Kashmir shawls gradually subsided, but the passion for cashmere did not stop. Cashmere sang high all the way around 1920, accompanied by the mainstream trend of high-end cashmere sweater products born in the United States. Prior to this, knitted clothing was only practical clothing or sports equipment.

Schematic diagram of different ways of wearing shawls in the 19th century

And when outstanding designers including Patou, Channel, and Schiaparelli began designing cashmere sweaters that combined fashion and luxury around 1930, this transformation was reinforced. In 1933, Pringle from Scotland launched a cashmere two-piece set, which quickly became a fashion trend in the United States.

Around 1940, the famous French fashion designer Mainbacher added decorations to British made cashmere cardigans, including beads, sequins, metal studs, and decorative fabric strips to design evening gowns.

Girls from the 1940s and 1950s would wear their mothers' cashmere cardigans in reverse, with buttons at the back. They also began to use fur collars for decoration, and most of these exquisite sweaters were made in Scotland. Designers such as Pringle, Ballentyne, Braemer, and Lyle Scoot were pioneers at the time.

Since the early 1980s

The wave of consumption returning to nature is sweeping across the world, and natural fibers and textiles are increasingly favored by people. Chinese cashmere enterprises have developed from raw material processing industry. The promotion of reform and opening up, the breakthrough of the cashmere industry, and the opening of the cashmere mass consumption market.

Cashmere fabrics are leading the way with their characteristics of being soft, lightweight, comfortable to wear, beautiful and elegant, and luxurious, and are increasingly accepted and recognized by consumers.

Up to now, 80% of the world's cashmere is produced in China, with the most famous being cashmere from the Alxa region of Inner Mongolia. But such precious and beautiful cashmere is often exported, and Chinese people rarely know about it, and even often encounter the dilemma of not distinguishing cashmere from wool.

However, it is embarrassing that even with good cashmere resources, when buying a cashmere sweater, people still hesitate to choose which brand to buy. Although cashmere is good, the phenomenon of "using good as secondary" still exists in the market, making people have to choose carefully.