Cashmere is both delicate and enduring, featherweight yet warm, and a natural fibre of lasting appeal in the fast-moving world of fashion. When selecting something made from this precious yarn, you do so with the discernment that it will be with you for years to come. Your little piece of luxury has come a long way from the remote plains of Inner Mongolia. There, after a bitter winter, its elaborate journey of transformation began as nomadic herdsmen manually combed out the fine fleece undercoat that insulated their Hircus goats in life- threatening temperatures plunging to -40 C, paradoxically also the key catalyst for the finest quality. These climate extremes, painstaking manual labour and a finely tuned manufacturing process make the ownership of fine cashmere a costly privilege. Your Artemis Wragge scarf, woven from the most valuable Inner Mongolian longhair white-for-white, requires premium grade fibre selected from no fewer than three goats.
It is also a little piece of history steeped in adventure and romance, going back to the exotic cargoes of the 16 century Silk Route caravans that carried treasures westwards from the outer reaches of China, Tibet, Mongolia, Afghanistan and northern Persia. First woven into shawls by Kashmiri craftsmen for the Indian emperor Akbar, cashmere remained the preserve of royalty until Napoleon III returned to Paris with eighteen splendid shawls for his Empress. A latter-day arbiter of style in the city that radiated fashion trends to all corners of the western world, Eugenie de Montijo launched our enduring cashmere lust on the legendary proposition that her shawls were so fine that she could draw them through her wedding band. At the turn of the 20th century, commercial production shifted to Scotland with the invention of a machine that performed the hitherto manually executed separation of fine fibres from coarse outer hair.
A full century later, however, the industry has returned to the northernmost province of China where 70% of the world’s finest cashmere is harvested. Manufacturers equipped with expert international technology produce to the highest standard geared at preserving the fibre’s integrity, with subtleties right down to the quality of the water and radio frequency used in the dyeing process. Exacting quality and sustainability are essential as each goat yields a mere 200 - 250g of raw cashmere and the worldwide annual crop of some eleven thousand tonnes places the environment and suppliers under continued pressure to meet global demand. So, after the herding, combing, sorting, dying, carding,spinning, oiling, knitting or weaving, washing, linking, printing, pressing, packaging, shipping and selling has been achieved, the last step in the journey of transformation… the wearing… is yours.
Care: Fold carefully, avoiding center creases. Repeated friction may cause some pilling. Undue abrasion will pull woven threads. Dry away from direct heat. Rinse out stains instantly in cold water -- hot water may set the stain. Never machine wash. Professionally dry clean only stubborn stains. Gently wash in lukewarm water with a mild soap and rinse thoroughly. Do not wring or twist but gently express water by hand. Lay flat on a dry towel until thoroughly air-dried -- do not hang. To repel moths, try the traditional method: cloves, lavender, rosemary, thyme, orange and cedar. And although you may want to wear it every day, grant it an occasional rest.
