Find your luscious new layer in the four Zambesi stores - Parnell, Newmarket, Ponsonby and Wellington or online at moenamoxham.com
Making the perfect gift- the scarves are presented in bespoke eco-conscious repurposable packaging.
The perfect place to store your scarf or other trinkets and keepsakes.
ABOUT CASHMERE & PASHMINA
Identifying the difference between Cashmere and Pashmina can be difficult as the wool of both has the same origin: the cashmere goat. Both, cashmere and pashmina, are exceptionally luxurious yarns and textiles. However, although cashmere and pashmina both refer to the same sort of product, there are subtle and unique characteristics that set them apart.
WHAT IS CASHMERE?
Cashmere is a term used to refer to the fibre obtained from the cashmere goat or clothing that is made from this. The texture of the cashmere is luxuriantly soft, strong, very fine and light and in turn gives very good insulation.
Cashmere yarn is made from the soft fleecy under layer of a goat’s coat with the finest wool often found on the underside of the neck. These goats produce a double fleece that consists of a fine, soft undercoat or underdown of hair mingled with a straighter and much coarser outer coating of hair called ‘guard hair’. For the fine underdown to be sold and processed further, it must be de-haired. De-hairing is a mechanical process that separates the coarse hairs from the fine hair. After de-hairing, the resulting "cashmere" is ready to be dyed and converted into textile yarn, fabrics and garments. Cashmere is collected during the spring moulting season when the goats naturally shed their winter coat. Animals in Iran, Afghanistan, New Zealand, and Australia are typically shorn of their fleece, which can result in a higher coarse hair content and lower pure cashmere yield.
Cashmere goats are found in high altitude nomadic herds across the world, typically in Mongolia, China and Iran where the large fluctuations in temperature make conditions more suitable for cashmere growth. In Mongolia, the goat population grew from 5 to 20 million in the period 1990-2009 due to an increased demand in cashmere. China is the worlds largest producer of cashmere with an estimated 10,000 metric tons per year.
As defined by the U.S. Wool Products Labelling Act of 1939, as amended, (15 Action 68b(a)(6)), a product may not be called cashmere unless it is made from the fine undercoat fibres produced by a cashmere goat, the average diameter of the fibre of the product does not exceed 19 microns (human hair is 50-70 microns), it does not contain more than 3 percent of cashmere fibres with diameters that exceed 30 microns and the average diameter of the fibre may be subject to a coefficient of variation around the mean that shall not exceed 24 percent.
WHAT IS PASHMINA?
Pashmina refers to a type of cashmere textile first woven in India. The fibre is also known as pashm (Persian for wool) or pashmina (Persian/Urdu word derived from Pashm, پشمینه / pašmina, meaning ‘made from wool’) for its use in the handmade shawls of Kashmir. This wool is harvested from the Pashmina goat also known as Changthangi, a breed that is indigenous to the high altitudes of the Himalayas in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Pashmina textiles are usually spun, embroidered, dyed and woven by hand.
Pashmina products, mostly fine scarves and blankets, are known for their softness and warmth. Due to the expense of pure cashmere, the most commonly found composition is a 70% pashmina/30% silk blend. However, the term ‘Pashmina’ is not a labelling term that is recognised in the US or a textile labelling term used in other Western countries.
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), or Harappan Civilisation which populated the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent (Mongolia, Nepal and Kashmir) in c. 3300–1200 BC used pashm yarn to make garments and items of craft. Along with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation was one of three early cradles of civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread. References to woollen shawls appear in texts surviving from between the 3rd century BC and the 11th century AD. However, a popular notion in Kashmir is that it was the 15th-century ruler of Kashmir, Zain-ul-Abidin, who founded the local wool industry by bringing weavers from Turkestan.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CASHMERE & PASHMINA?
Cashmere and pashmina can both be categorised as wool products that are derived from mountain goats. Technically the yarns are very, very similar (with small variations in the breeds of goat), but each have their own distinct ‘cultural’ identities.
Cashmere is a product that is made in countries such as China, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, New Zealand, Turkey, and other Central Asian Republics.
Pashmina is a premium product exclusively produced in India, Nepal and Pakistan from the Changthangi goat. The traditional producers of Pashmina Wool in Ladakh region of India are a tribe known as the Changpa.
On average, Pashmina fibres are known to be finer and thinner than cashmere fibre which makes them ideal for the production of lightweight apparel.
Pashmina is mostly hand woven and spun while cashmere is usually machine worked.
Cashmere is an umbrella term recognised internationally for the finest goat wool under 19 microns. ‘Pashmina’ can only be used interchangeably with ‘Cashmere’ if the yarn is of the finest quality and has come from the high altitudes of Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal, Kashmir or Pakistan.
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