What is Cashmere?

Cashmere is one of the finest, most luxurious natural fibres in the World. It is renowned for its extreme softness, warmth and lustrous quality.

Cashmere gets its name from the Kashmir goat, which are native to the Himilayan mountains in China and Mongolia. Here the goats have naturally adapted to withstand extremely harsh weather. To cope with minus-30 degree Celsius temperatures, the goats grow two coats: a thick, coarse outer coat and a superfine, super soft inner coat. The latter only makes up around a quarter of the goat’s total fleece, and these are the fibres that comprise cashmere.

Cashmere is up to three times more insulating than sheep’s wool and much rarer. Cashmere is extremely difficult to gather — most of this downy hair is collected by hand combing during the goats’ molting season once per year. One goat typically yields about 150 grams of cashmere per year, much less than say, a merino sheep that yields 4,000 grams per year. The average sweater requires hair from four to six goats. 

As a result, cashmere is knitwear’s ultimate luxury textile; it’s rare, it’s hard to harvest and it’s much more comfortable and delicate than wool. 

Waiheke Cashmere uses suppliers and factories who work with ethically sourced cashmere, no goats were harmed in the making of our products. Learn more about our suppliers, our sustainability goals and our transparent factories here.