Cashmere, animal hair fiber that forms the woolly undercoat of the Kashmir goat and that belongs to the set of textile fibers called singular hair fibers. While the word cashmere is sometimes incorrectly applied to excessively soft wool, only the Kashmir goat product is authentic cashmere.
The fiber, famous as pashmina or pashmina in certain parts
of Asia, became famous for its use in beautiful shawls and other handmade items
produced in Kashmir, India. At the start of the 19th century, cashmere shawls
reached their greatest popularity, and the shawls of England, France and the
city of Paisley, Scotland, were made to imitate the original shawls of Kashmir.
The Kashmir goat has a protective outer layer of coarse
fiber four to eight inches in length. The soft undercoat is made up of the
fine, soft fiber generally called cashmere, which is between two to five and
nine cm (1 to three to five inches) in length. Most of this down fiber is
either plucked or hand-combed throughout the shedding season. Iranian cashmere,
however, is obtained by shearing. The annual performance per animal fluctuates
between a few grams and around 0.5 kilos. A sweater requires the fleece of four
to six goats; an overcoat employs the production of thirty to forty. Some
fiber, called stretched cashmere, is extracted from the skins of slaughtered
animals.
The fleece is cleaned to remove impurities such as grease
and vegetable matter. Coarse hairs are removed through multiple mechanical hair
removal processes that are often kept secret by their developers. Processing
reduces final performance by fifty percent. The amount of thick hair that
remains largely affects cost, with the fiber with the lowest hair content being
the one that has the highest cost. High-quality cashmere-coated canvases
usually contain less than five percent of the coarse pile; fine quality
sweaters have less than 1 percent. The scales that form the outer layer, or
epidermis, of the fine fiber are less typical than those of wool, although more
defined than in mohair; the cortical layer is striated and contains variable
amounts of pigment that generate the tone of the fiber; and there is no medulla
of its own (central canal). The fibers have finer diameters than those of the
best wools. Kashmir goats from China and Mongolia generate fibers with
diameters ranging from fourteen five to sixteen five micrometers; that of
Iranian goats is seventeen five to nineteen five micrometers. The color,
generally gray or tan, changes from white to black. that of Iranian goats is
seventeen five to nineteen five micrometers. The color, generally gray or tan,
changes from white to black. that of Iranian goats is seventeen five to
nineteen five micrometers. The color, generally gray or tan, changes from white
to black.
Cashmere canvas is warm and user-friendly, with great drape
and soft texture qualities. Fiber, which absorbs and retains moisture like
wool, is somewhat thinner than fine wool and significantly weaker than mohair.
It is very susceptible to damage from strong alkalis and high temperatures.
Dark fibers are bleached to light tones, although the process can reduce
strength and softness. Cashmere fabrics are subject to abrasion from use;
caking or clumping of the fibers on the surface is a disadvantage in knitted
fabrics.
Uses of cashmere fiber
Cashmere is used primarily for fine fabrics for coats,
dresses and suits and for high-quality knitwear and hosiery . Sometimes it is
mixed with other fibers. The strong and thick hair separated from the down is
used locally for grain bags, ropes, blankets and tent curtains. Because global
production is so small and collection and processing are expensive, cashmere is
a very luxurious fiber. Demand and consequently cost are hurt by fashion
trends. New man-made fibers with a similar texture and fineness, produced at
considerably lower cost, have become a source of competition.
The main cashmere producers are China, Mongolia and they
will also go. Cashmere is also produced in the Indian subcontinent and in
Afghanistan and Turkey. The USA, the United Kingdom and Japan are the main
users.