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What is Cashmere? Have you bought Pure Cashmere?

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 7 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

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Everything you want to know about Pure Cashmere

This Lens is all about revealing truth about cashmere. Cashmere is a luxurious wool. You will be surprised to know that hardly 5% of cashmere available in the market is Pure Cashmere .

The aim of this Lens is to provide all the required information you want to know about cashmere.

Try this Beautiful and Super Soft, Friendly to Your Skin Wool Scarf!

Scarf made using centuries old traditional weaving methods and coloured using centuries old method of using flowers and natural plants in colours. Click on link below to know more:
Multi Colour Striped Lambs Wool Scarf coloured using dyes made from Flowers

What is Cashmere ? 

Where does cashmere comes from?

What is Cashmere? or Where does cashmere comes from? is the most common question asked by everyone who buys or feels cashmere first time. Here is answer to this question:

Cashmere is extremely soft, luxurious and very warm wool. It is one of the best wool fibre available in the world. Its silken feel, feather-light weight, and appreciable status make it highly desirable. Owning a garment made of cashmere is a fashion treat to be truly treasured.

Cashmere is collected from cashmere goats. Cashmere goats are found in very high altitude areas. A fine undercoat is grown by these animals to protect them from very low temperatures, but once winter is over, goats begin to lose the protective layer of cashmere in spring, which is combed off them and collected. This is then processed to produce Cashmere yarn. It takes one little goat four years to produce enough wool to make just one cashmere sweater.
Now after learning about what cashmere is and how it is produced, you must have got the feeling that how labor intensive the cashmere production process is. So the hard truth is this doesn't come at low price. You have to pay good price for 100% pure and real Cashmere.

Click here to know more about what is cashmere

Vote for the Best Looking Cashmere Scarf 

Vote Now! Choose best cashmere scarf from the photos below.
Click on the images below to see larger images.

Hand Knitted Cashmere Scarf
Hand Knitted Cashmere Scarf

#1

3 points
Handwoven Cashmere Scarf
Handwoven Cashmere Scarf

#2

2 points
Handwoven Striped Cashmere Scarf
Handwoven Striped Cashmere Scarf

#3

2 points

How I can find cashmere at very cheap prices at some shops and at high prices in other shops? 

You must be wondering that you can easily get Cashmere scarf for $20 or even less in some high street store . But my dear friends, the cheap cashmere that you get in market is not PURE CASHMERE. Most of the cashmere products sold in market only contain 20% or 30% cashmere and rest of the garment is either silk or some other wool. To your surprise some products like cashmere scarves which are labelled as cashmere might not have even 1% cashmere.

How to tell if cashmere is really high quality and 100% pure? 

Have I bought Pure Cashmere?

If you have not bought your cashmere from a reliable retailer you can not be sure about if you have bought 100% pure cashmere. Check if the retailer you bought from has cashmere test certificate.

It is a hard fact that most of cashmere in market is adulterated. The reason for this is the high price for pure cashmere. To make it cheaper, the cashmere is adulterated with many other fabrics like silk or cheap wool. But trust me, you can never get that feeling of luxury, quality and warmth with these cheap products.

When I got into business of selling cashmere scarves, I was surprised to see cashmere scarves available for very low prices. But when I researched into the market, I came to know that most of the cheap cashmere is adulterated. I know you won't believe me at this point but after reading this squidoo lens completely you must be very satisfied to know the truth..

Because I sell cashmere, so from time to time I get emails from manufacturers who manufacture cashmere. Here is one of emails from a supplier which I received recently. Obviously I didn't go ahead with them as I knew already what pure cashmere is and how much it costs. I am copying the email as it is but keeping name of supplier private as I think its not good to disclose here and against our privacy policies. This clearly shows the composition of cheap and costly Cashmere products.

It is long email but if you look at Bold text(It's been made bold by me to highlight few key things) you will see what those low price Cashmere / pashmina products are actually made from.

Here it Goes (EMAIL from a cashmere manufacturer) :

Dear sir/madam,
We are wholesaler, retailer and manufacturer of Pashmina (Cashmere), silk and woollen base items such as shawls, stoles, scarf, blankets and knit wears etc. We have been working in this field from last 15 years, concerning the quality, size, design, finishing and colours, we have very good knowledge. As for the price since we are also the wholesaler of the raw materials in the local market. We can give you the very competitive lower price with the very high range of quality.

Our prices are as follows:

REVERSIBLE - (material- 60% silk 40% viscous like cotton but feels very soft.)

Low quality
90cm/200cm=$8

70cm/200cm=$7

30cm/150cm=$3

THE REVERSIBLE IN PASHMINA -(material-80%pashmina and 20% silk.)

High quality
90cm/200cm=$35
70cm/200cm=$31
30cm/150cm=$10

AS FOR THE 70/30 PASHMINA THERE ARE THREE QUALITIES-High, Medium and Low.

70% pashmina and 30% Silk in the high quality.
135cm/270cm=$75
90cm/200cm=$29
70cm/200cm=$24
30cm/150cm=$9

In the medium quality though it is mentioned 70% pashmina 30% silk there will not be exact 70% pashmina contain.
90cm/200cm=$22
70cm/200cm=$17
30cm/150cm=$6

And in the low quality there will not be any pashmina it is just fine wool and silk.
90cm/200cm=$10

70cm/200cm=$8
30cm/150cm=$4

AS FOR THE 100% PASHMINA THERE ARE TWO QUALITIES-High and Low.

High Quality
135cm/270cm=$95

90cm/200cm=$35
70cm/200cm=$28
30cm/150cm=$12

Medium Quality
90cm/200cm=$24
70cm/200cm=$19
30cm/150cm=$6

Hoping your early reply.

Thanking you.

Best regards

********* EMAIL ENDS from SUPPLIER *********

Just look at the difference in price of 100% pure cashmere/pashmina and 70% cashmere 30% silk composition (This has been bolded in above text). It's difference of $85. This clearly shows what cheap cashmere is made of. For sure you are not going to get any scarf or anything made from cashmere for less than $50.

How do I find pure cashmere of high quality ? 

    Above email easily explains how difficult it is to identify pure Cashmere / pashmina. But we are providing some tips below which will at least help to certain extent.

  • Ask the retailer if they can show you the cashmere test certificate. I know it is hard to find this kind of certificate in high street stores as hardly anybody gets their cashmere tested.


  • If you try cashmere scarf or other product in store, just make sure it doesn't itch. As normally cashmere doesn't itch.

  • If you are buying online, make sure the retailer offers returns policy. So that in case after you receive the product, you can feel it and if you have any doubts you can return it.

3 factors which influence price of a Cashmere / Pashmina? 


  • Percentage of Cashmere. If its 100% cashmere no doubt it will be high price.

  • Size of the cashmere product. The size of cashmere scarves varies a lot between different websites, this will also affect the price of cashmere

  • Is fair price paid to workers who produce cashmere?

Where to buy 100% Pure Cashmere / Pashmina Scarves? 

Luxurious Ways to Pamper Your Inner Princess 

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I will love to hear from you

I hope you must have enjoyed reading this lens and it might have made you aware of adulteration of cashmere. Please leave a feedback to this lens under Reader Feedback section below. If you have any questions regarding cashmere you can contact me.

Reader Feedback 

MiaBellezza

Sahota, nice lens and you have a beautiful site!

Posted June 10, 2008

Julieanne

I love the handknitted cashmere scarf best, because of the pattern. If I travel to Europe or America in the winter, I will appreciate these scarves. I live in a tropical climate in Australia, and can't imagine wearing a scarf right now.

Posted February 11, 2008

Great stuff about cashmere -thanks!

Posted February 02, 2008

JohnvanZyl

Those cashmere goats must be beautiful to touch.

Posted December 01, 2007

asoch

Good resource for cashmere information

Posted November 29, 2007

Bronx

I am so glad I found this before Christmas. I was looking for some quality sweaters and now I really know what to look for.

Posted November 24, 2007

Rhab

Great lens, a lot of information I was unaware of! Thanks for the heads up.

Posted October 24, 2007

Tracey

Wow, I didn't know. Great info.

Posted October 23, 2007

Interesting Links for Pure Lambs Wool Scarves - Unusual and Fashionable 

Have you Seen Scarves Coloured using Vegetable Dyes Made from Flowers and Natural Plants.

These are 100% pure lambs wool handmade scarves which are coloured using vegetable dyes. Vegetable dyes are made from the naturally grown flowers and plants in Himalayas in north of India.
Double Colour Hand Woven Lambs Wool Scarf
Lambswool scarf with two shades of a colour with harringbone weave design.
Three Colour Fine Stripes Lambs Wool Winter Scarf
Beautiful lambswool scarf with fine stripes of three colours.
Women's Neck Scarf made from Lambs Wool
Multi coloured, striped lambswool scarves looks great.
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sahota

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