Cashmere in China
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- publisher
- Claire
- Issue Time
- Apr 13,2020
Summary
Even though China and Mongolia supply most of the world’s cashmere even for the most expensive brands, the difference in quality come from manufacturing.
Cashmere in China
Even though China and Mongolia supply most of the world’s cashmere even for the most expensive brands, the difference in quality come from manufacturing. Scotland and Italy are well known traditional centers of excellence when it comes to spinning and knitting cashmere. In these countries cashmere production is a centuries old trade.
It takes a Mongolian goat roughly 4 years to shed enough hair to make one cashmere sweater. The hair has to be washed and sorted by hand, and once the raw material is harvested it must be spun into yarn and made into a garment. Traditionally this process is all carried out by hand, but in the new factories that are springing up all over China; they are mass producing this garment with machinery.
Cashmere is eight times warmer and significantly lighter than wool so cutting corners in production will no doubt have an adverse effect on its quality. The less expensive cashmere sold at big box retailers will wear out faster and lack the lavish, soft feel that makes cashmere so highly desired. (Not All Cashmere is Created Equal)
The current situation in China is having a reverse effect on the market that it created. Goats that were once profitable are now costing a fortune to keep alive, and with the decrease in supply, prices are starting to rise. This in combination with the severe environmental impacts that it has caused shows that soon the “big-box” production of cashmere production will soon have to come to an end. There simply aren’t enough resources.