History of Cashmere

天塞纺织——许你一世绒华

“ May you live forever”

In the world of textiles

cashmere is very luxurious

extremely soft, light,

 warm fiber that money can buy

Cashmere originates from the far-end of the Earth, the cold and ridiculous Asian plains - the northern slopes of the Himalayas and migrated with Chinese herdsmen to Inner Mongolia and northern China during the 11th and 13th centuries.

“White as snow, light as clouds, soft as silk" 1436 cashmere

In the Tang Dynasty of China, the cashmere cloth woven out of the fine and soft "inner hair" (velvet) of goats is called "fluff brown", which is light and warm, and is deeply loved by people. In the book "The Heavenly Work Foreign Objects" of the Ming Dynasty, the method of producing cashmere cloth was also described: "pick up" with fingers, and then "woven velvet brown".

Later, when Mongolian leader Kublai Khan and Genghis Khan built their Asian empire, cashmere began to slowly enter the trade route with the West, but it is still very rare. It has hardly appeared in the historical records of the West.

In the Mesobu Damia archaeological discovery of tools used for shearing in 2300 BC, cashmere fabrics were discovered in Syria as early as around 200 AD, but the written records of cashmere did not exist before the 16th century. But there have been several legends about cashmere, the famous one of which is the lining of the Ark of the Covenant (the Moses placed in the Bible in the Bible) is made of cashmere; the legendary cashmere is loved by the Roman aristocracy in ancient Roman fabrics. High status.

Cashmere initially attracted attention in the Western world due to the shoulders of Kashmir in the Kashmir region of India. The English name of cashmere is also directly referred to as CASHMERE during this period and has been extended to this day.

Oil painting - traditional cashmere shawl weaving embroidery in Kashmir

In the 15th century, the city of Kashmir was ruled by the Mongolian emperor Zanul Abidir, who was known for his great promotion of art and culture. He is keen to combine great artists and materials. Abidir invites artists and skilled Turkestan weavers to weave the shoulders from the cashmere imported from Tibet. The result has never been seen before, extremely luxurious and soft. The warm shoulders were born.

Throughout Asia, this famous shoulder is the larger export commodity of Kashmir and the national pride of local weavers. Making such a shoulder is a long and laborious process that is enough for a Kashmiri family to be busy throughout the winter. They imported raw cashmere from Tibetan herdsmen, then manually removed coarse hair, sand and grass thorns, and began to weave, dye, and weave a shoulder with a carefully designed pattern. Once weaved, there is a custom that the shoulders will be given to the bride as a precious gift on the wedding day. According to customs, in order to witness the incomparable exquisiteness and beauty, this shawl will be passed through the wedding ring in order to bring good luck.

Beginning in the late 18th century, wealthy British businessmen brought a Kashmiri shoulder to their wives as a gift when they returned from Asia. This extremely rare and luxurious item has become a symbol of wealth and status in the UK – with a shawl, it has a glamorous capital with a successful husband in secular sense.

1824 Oil Painting - Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Cashmere Shawl

The French began to embrace this trend, and the young Josephine Bonaparte was particularly fascinated by the draping of cashmere. Legend has it that Napoleon once bought 60 different styles of shoulders, and the price of each item was as high as 8,000-12,000 francs.

As this status symbol becomes more popular, demand far exceeds supply. On average, in order to produce only one shoulder, a Tibetan shepherd needs a full year to get enough cashmere, and two Kashmiri are required to weave the entire pattern for 18 months.

In order to meet the demand, the producers in England and France began to produce the "cottage" version of this famous shoulder. They use local cashmere, mix with silk and hire weavers to imitate Asian designs. The British cottage version still looks impressive, but it is far from the softness and lightness of the Kashmiri shoulders. Simply put, there is no raw material in Europe that can compete with Asian cashmere.

In 1812, a young British veterinarian named William Mokloft received permission and funding from the Indian Oriental Company to organize a team to enter Tibet in order to obtain a method for Asian cashmere goats to breed in Europe. In fact, he only I stole 50 cashmere goats and quickly transported them back to the UK by sea.

Unfortunately, the ship carrying the female goat suffered a shipwreck, and the male goat died all four months after arriving in Scotland. The British realized that the Tibetan cashmere goats were far from the wasteland and the shepherds there could not survive.

Not only was Mokroft unsuccessful, the French also introduced about 300 cashmere goats to France, and it was unable to adapt to all deaths. Europeans finally accepted the fact that cashmere goats could not survive in Europe, while Italian and Scottish manufacturers began importing cashmere raw materials in the 19th century to establish spinning and weaving factories.

It was not until the end of the 19th century that the enthusiasm for the shoulders of Kashmir gradually subsided, but the enthusiasm for cashmere did not stop. Cashmere sings all the way around the 1920 with the cashmere sweater products born in the United States into the mainstream fashion, before this, knitted clothing is only practical clothing or sporting goods. This transformation was reinforced when the outstanding designers including Patou, Channel and Schiaparelli began to design fashionable and luxurious cashmere sweaters around 1930. In 1933, Pringle of Scotland launched a two-piece cashmere set and quickly became a fashion trend in the United States.

Around 1940, French fashion designer Mainbocher added a British-made cashmere cardigan to decorate evening dresses with beads, sequins, metal studs and decorative strips. The girls of the 40s and 50s of the last century will wear the mother's cashmere cardigan and the button is behind. They also began to decorate with fur collars. Most of these delicate sweaters were made in Scotland, and designers such as Pringle, Ballentyne, Braemer and Lyle Scoot were the leaders at the time.

Until the 1980s, cashmere was always a symbol of wealth and status. As one of the many outcomes of the Asian political change movement in the 1990s, especially China's reform and opening up, retailers in the mass consumer market were able to start supplying cashmere clothing to a wider audience. In the late 1990s, cashmere appeared in the GAP store and at Filene's Basement. A discount zone appears. Banana Republic's 1999 advertising slogan: "Banana Republic redefines cashmere for the new American casual style of the 1990s."