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The end of 2023 ushered in the coldest time of the year, and a soft, comfortable, skin-friendly, windproof and cold cashmere sweater can bring warmth and peace of mind. Due to its scarce production, cashmere has been regarded as the "soft gold" of the fabric industry, and is sought after by the world. China is the most important producer of cashmere, the output of the world's first. Cashmere from the Ordos region of Inner Mongolia is one of the best. And once across the Eurasian continent, "cashmere road", also in the history of civilization exchanges between the east and west has left a colorful one.
The "Cashmere Road" connecting Asia and Europe
Cashmere is a layer of fine, thick wool that grows at the root of the goat's hair to protect it from the cold. The colder the climate, the thicker the cashmere, the finer the fibers, and the better the warmth. Historically, because the Kashmir region was once the distribution center for cashmere exported to Europe, so in the international market, cashmere is customarily known as Cashmere, which is phonetically translated as cashmere in China.
The time of human utilization of cashmere is much earlier than wool. In the primitive society before the emergence of iron tools, people have begun to use the goat on the natural shedding of cashmere for spinning. The oldest surviving piece of cashmere was found in Syria, a fragment of a cashmere textile from around 200 AD. By the 15th century AD, the Mongol Emperor, ruler of the city of Kashmir, promoted art and culture by inviting artists and skilled Turkish weavers to create shawls using cashmere imported from Tibet, resulting in the creation of lavish, soft, warm cashmere shawls.
The process of making these expensive shawls was long and complex, with shawl patterns drawn by specialists, and weavers weaving the patterns according to drawings with symbols for lines, colors, etc. The shawls were made by two or three weavers. Usually two or three weavers work together under the direction of a master weaver to weave a shawl, and embroidery is used for particularly delicate designs. It usually takes three months to weave a shawl, and a year and a half for complex designs. The finished shawl is then carefully washed to ensure that it is soft and lightweight. It is customary to give a cashmere shawl as a precious gift to the bride on her wedding day. It is customary to thread the soft, lightweight shawl through the wedding ring to bring good luck to the couple.
The most famous cashmere shawl in history is the one given to Empress Josephine by Napoleon on his return from Asia during his campaigns. It is said that in 1796, the King of Afghanistan gave a friend from Baghdad a beautiful cashmere shawl, which later traveled to many places and came to Napoleon. Queen Josephine to this shawl love, since then they began to collect cashmere shawls, before and after the collection of three to four hundred various kinds of cashmere shawls. It is said that the cashmere shawls owned by Empress Josephine, each worth up to 15,000 to 20,000 francs.
At that time, the Queen Josephine, who was very particular about her clothes, naturally led the trend of cashmere shawls, and the French aristocracy began to rush to this. Cashmere shawl in Europe is also popular with the reform of women's clothing at that time. 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, the French aristocratic ladies got rid of the heavy corset and skirt support, in order to chase the beautiful, not hesitate to risk the cold to change into a thin and light tulle skirt, and many people are sick as a result. And thin, soft, warm cashmere shawl, it has become the pursuit of "beautiful and frozen" of the aristocratic ladies of choice. French literature and paintings at the time can often be seen in the figure of the cashmere shawl. For example, the writer Alexandre Dumas in his book "The Lady of the Camellias" by describing "wearing fashionable clothes, wearing a cashmere shawl, there are gorgeous four-wheeled sedan carriages waiting at the front door," to show that the heroine Marguerite's fashionable dress and extravagant life. When Margaret was poor and desperate, she "sold her carriage, cashmere shawl, and pawned her jewelry", which is enough to show how expensive cashmere shawls were at that time.
Since the middle of the 19th century, Italy and the British Scottish region also began to establish cashmere spinning and weaving factories, Europe's demand for cashmere surge. In order to solve the shortage of raw materials, Europeans tried to raise goats locally in Europe. 1812, William Moorcroft of the East India Company bought 25 pairs of Tibetan goats from Tibet and brought them back to England. He wrote in his journal of the expedition, "This is a new era in the history of the Company's trade." However, half of the 25 pairs of Tibetan goats died en route, and the remaining half, after arriving in the British Isles, either failed to acclimatize to the maritime climate and died, or, if they did acclimatize to the new climate, failed to grow the kind of fine fleece found in the cold mountain environment. After Moorcroft, there were also attempts to raise goats in Europe, all of which failed.
At that time, in order to sell cashmere products, from Kashmir to Europe, the formation of a connection between the cashmere origin, distribution, production and sales market "cashmere road". Including Kadak (now China's Tibet, Tibet, Gaer County, southeast of Gaer Yasha), Lecheng (Kashmir Ladakh regional capital), Srinagar (Kashmir regional capital, the largest cashmere shawl distribution center) and Yarkand (Xinjiang to Tibet, Central Asia, South Asia, the road to the convergence of the place), including a series of commercial towns. In winter, most of the travelers' journeys took place in the river valleys because most of the rivers were frozen during the winter dry season, making it relatively safe to walk on the ice. In summer, the business travelers from Ali, Ladakh northbound, over the Karakoram Mountains, after the Saitula, about 40 days can reach Yarkand. This way over the mountains, the road is difficult, but the profit is also quite lucrative. Until the end of the 19th century, Europeans on the cashmere shawl frenzy only gradually subsided, "cashmere road" on the gradual beginning of the transportation of other Western specialties and handmade products from Russia.
Lanzhou wool was popular in the Ming Dynasty
The main cashmere-producing countries in the world are China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Turkey and so on. China is the most important producer of raw cashmere, mainly produced in Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places in China, the production accounted for more than 70% of the world's total output.
As the world's largest producer of cashmere, China as early as 5,500 years ago, know how to use the wool on the sheep to keep warm and cold. The application of cashmere, on the other hand, began in the Tang Dynasty. Song Yingxing in the Ming Dynasty, "Heavenly Creatures" in the record, the goat from the end of the Tang Dynasty from the West, "the outer hair is not very long fur, the inner hair is fine and soft, to take the weaving of velvet brown, the Qin people said the name of the goat, in order to be different from the sheep. This kind of first from the West into Lintao, Lanzhou, Lanzhou alone, so the brown of the fine ones are out of Lanzhou, a said 'Lan velvet', the tomato language is called 'Lone ancient velvet'." One of the so-called "lonely ancient", for the Tibetan translation of the goat. In the Tang Dynasty, people have found that the sheep from the West has a fine and soft "inner hair", can weave a soft and smooth fabric. Fabrics made from goat's inner hair were called "velvet brown". According to "Tian Gong Kai Shi", "Where to play the brown velvet thread, smelt lead for the hammer, fell on the ends of the two hands, and rolled into." To this day, in the folk in the northwest, there is still this technique of rubbing thread.
In the Ming Dynasty, Lanzhou produced Lanzhou velvet is quite famous, is China's best cashmere at that time. Lanzhou velvet was popular in the Ming Dynasty, according to the local records at that time, "public officials and noblemen, whenever the cold months and winds are severe, the idle residence and talk about banquets, hairpins reflect each other, and not to be appreciated in this elegant and popular". According to "Gan Ning Qing Historical Sketch" records, a businessman called Fang Yu Lu, see the dignitaries wearing brown velvet, also want to follow the trend. A friend in Xi'an sent him a piece of blue velvet fabric, when it was already April spring, he was eager to find a tailor to make velvet robes, put on to guests to show off. Wearing a velvet robe, Fang Yulu sweating, a moment to put his feet out of the robe, a moment to stand up and make a gesture, just want to let the guests pay attention to his velvet robe. Some of the guests mocked him with a poem: "I love the Lanzhou pimple tartar velvet, and I send it to the tailor after spring. I was waiting for the peach blossom snow in the cold, and hated the willow wind in the heat. Suddenly, I am fascinated by the fine feet, and sometimes I am proud of the high chest. It is usually the same as in Lu, but it is different when it is dressed in velvet."

A portrait of Queen Josephine holding a cashmere shawl at the Prado Museum in Spain.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Lanzhou velvet brown production process has reached a very high level, "made for the weaving of gold makeup flowers of the beautiful, five color flash color of the Hua", the price is also very expensive, "a robe fee to a hundred gold, a horse price of more than ten two. Even Ming's Danei Weaving and Dyeing Bureau had specially reported to the Wanli Emperor: "Lanzhou velvet brown can be cold, please buy materials, with each cashmere wool weaving color dragon robe, trailing clothes and so on."
To the Kangxi of the Qing dynasty to the Qianlong years, every year, "merchants to Lanzhou to collect velvet brown, years of tens of thousands of gold". In front of huge profits, the situation of substandard, jerry-built frequently, in order to curb the indiscriminate collection, indiscriminate sale of substandard velvet brown, Lanzhou introduced the wool textile industry at that time technical standards. In the remnants of the tablet "velvet line charter", we can see the standard size of the velvet brown regulations: "lengthen the velvet length of nine zhang, width of one foot, four inches", there are store, machine households, broker, the line head of the violation of the penalties, for example, the fourth article provides that "the store is trying to profit, will not comply with the style of the velvet brown, indiscriminate collection of indiscriminate sales of the person The fine was sixty taels of silver".
In the late Qing Dynasty, and most of the traditional textile industry experienced the same, Lanzhou velvet was also affected by the impact of foreign cloth, the local velvet brown industry almost destroyed. Later, Zuo Zongtang created the first woolen mill in China's history in Lanzhou, the Lanzhou Tweed Bureau, one of the two tweed mills in the whole of Asia, which briefly revived the local textile industry.
The best cashmere in the world is produced in China
Cashmere production is very small, a cashmere goat can only produce 50 to 80 grams of hairless fleece a year, that is to say, an average of every 5 goats a year the fleece produced is only enough to make an ordinary cashmere sweater. And cashmere products production process is complex, and has a comfortable, light, soft, soft skin feel and excellent warmth, and therefore particularly valuable, to the price of grams, known as the "fiber gem" "soft gold". Cashmere fiber is very fine, the international textile industry sector on the fineness of cashmere requirements is 13 to 16 microns in diameter. The higher the fineness of cashmere fibers, the smaller the contact surface is when it comes into contact with the skin, the softer and more comfortable it feels, which is also the main reason why cashmere products can be worn close to the body. In the international market, the diameter of 16 microns below the length of the long cashmere price is the best, with the diameter of the coarsening, the unit price also fell. The cashmere fiber produced in China, the diameter of 13 to 15 microns, the length of 35 to 45 mm, and a high proportion of white velvet, can be said to be the world's best original velvet.
Cashmere grows in the winter when it is cold to protect against wind and cold, and then falls off when it warms up in the spring. In China, goats usually start to grow fleece in August and stop growing at the end of December. Therefore, in order to collect the convenience of people, generally in the cashmere to a certain length of time that is with a special comb for combing. Combing comb needs to be close to the sheep's skin, light and stable, fast and even, do not force too hard, otherwise it will damage the goat's velvet capsule, resulting in no longer grow velvet. Also choose a sunny day combing, because rainy days are wet cashmere is not easy to comb, and easy to cause the goat cold. The cashmere thus combed is known as raw fleece, which is still mixed with a large amount of coarse hair, and therefore needs to be separated from the hair by a separation process. In the 19th century, combing technology and equipment is monopolized by the United Kingdom, after the 20th century, the United States, Japan and Hong Kong, China, before the successive combing of cashmere manufacturers.
In the early 1960s, China manufactured the first generation of domestic cashmere combing machine BC273, began to use their own combing of cashmere manufacturing final product exports. The combed hairless fleece, i.e. the net fleece after removing impurities, will undergo a series of processes such as dyeing, dehydration, drying, and velvet processing into roving, and then through drafting, twisting to form fine yarns, and finally merging and combing processes to form yarn that can be used to weave sweaters.
After the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, Zhou Yichun, who had resigned from the post of president of Tsinghua University, and Fei Xingren, who had returned to China after studying abroad, in order to explore the path of industrial salvation, together with some students who had stayed in the U.S.A., they pooled their capital and set up a store of the nature of a "hanging store" in Beijing, the Renli Company. 1920, the Renli Company was established in Beihai. In 1920, Renli opened a carpet factory at No.22, Shaojiu Hutong, Beixiaojie, employing workers to make carpets. After the founding of New China, Beijing Renli Hemp Textile Factory, a public-private partnership, started its production and operation. The company's main business was the production of hemp textiles, but also the processing of other textiles, and in 1964, the first cashmere sweater in New China was born in Beijing Renli Hemp Textile Factory. In 1964, the first cashmere sweater in New China was born in Beijing Renli Hemp Textile Factory, and Beijing Renli Hemp Textile Factory is the predecessor of the present cashmere brand Snow Lotus. Since then, with the rise of Ordos, Deer King and other cashmere sweater brands, as well as the continuous updating of textile technology, China's cashmere industry is also the first production of cashmere from the original fleece exporter, to a comprehensive cashmere brand power.

Love cashmere court of the Qing dynasty
Originated in the nomadic royal family of the Qing dynasty, the wool, cashmere products favored, the Palace Museum collection of Qing dynasty cultural relics, there are hundreds of pieces of cashmere clothing, blankets, cushions and other fabrics. In order to ensure that the royal demand for cashmere, the Shunzhi years, every spring and fall by the Qingfeng Division under the South Park six sheep circle, Zhangjiakou outside the sheep pasture supply. South Park six sheep circle a total of 1,700 sheep, Qingfeng Division in the Great Wall outside the steppe of the vast grasslands set up three pastures, a total of 140 groups of sheep, each group of 1,100. These pastures can harvest rich cashmere, cashmere fabrics for the Qing dynasty court provided sufficient raw materials. According to records, the collection of cashmere at that time there are two methods: one is the combing of cashmere, that is, with a bamboo comb down the wool; the other is hand-pulled cashmere, for the finer cashmere, by the specialists with a fingernail along the direction of its growth plucked down.
Qing dynasty court used a variety of cashmere products, many of which are Tibet tribute to. In Tibet, there is a traditional hand-woven product called serge (pǔlu). There are many grades of serge, and the finest is called Xuma, also known as fine-wool serge, which is woven from the down around the neck and belly of the goat, and is exceptionally fine and soft. Xuma to red, black two colors, cross pattern, mostly used for the production of clothing. There is also a tribute called woof dharani sutra quilt, made of Tibetan antelope cashmere, swede velvet and silk mixed woof, with Sanskrit scriptures as the pattern. It is not an ordinary quilt, but a Tibetan living Buddha tribute to the Qing royal family's burial goods, dedicated to covering the remains of the Qing royal family members, which is commonly known to the people as the shroud.
What is the difference between wool, cashmere and mohair?
When people are shopping for sweaters, it can often be difficult to tell the difference between wool, cashmere and mohair. In a nutshell, these three yarn components come from different breeds of sheep.
Of these, wool mainly refers to the wool of sheep. Each sheep produces a few kilograms of wool per year, which is generally collected by shearing. Wool is also generally categorized as follows: first shearing wool, i.e., wool shaved from sheep for the first time; lamb's wool, which refers to wool taken from a baby sheep of roughly seven months; merino wool, which comes from Australian merino sheep, has a soft and elastic handfeel that is very close to the texture of cashmere, and produces a larger amount than cashmere, so it can be used as a substitute for cashmere at the entry level.
Mohair, on the other hand, refers to Angora goat hair, originally from the Angola province of Turkey, now mainly produced in South Africa. Angora means "the best wool" in Turkish, while mohair is originally a Turkish word meaning "silk-like goat hair". Mohair was exported to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and Texas in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mohair has coarse fibers, strong luster, good elasticity, less curling and other characteristics, so it is not easy to shrink and difficult to felt shrinking ball, is one of the commonly used high-level plush fabrics.
Cashmere is produced from the goat, refers to the long in the goat coarse hair root of the fine wool, through the special comb a little comb down to collect, so the production is very low. Due to its scarcity and warmth, cashmere is more precious than wool and mohair.
According to the color of cashmere, it can be divided into white velvet, purple velvet and green velvet, of which white velvet is the most widely used. White cashmere is the white goat produced velvet, high velvet production, velvet fineness, length, tensile strength, luster is better, and can be dyed in a wider range, including China's Inner Mongolia Ertuoqqi Albas white cashmere goat is the most well-known. Purple velvet is the black goat produced velvet, purple-brown, allowing white, green, red velvet mixed in. Purple velvet fiber is fine, soft and long, oily and delicate. Green velvet refers to the velvet produced by green goats and brown red goats, light green in color