CASHMERE, THE VERY WORD EVOKES LUXURY

To survive the inhospitable environment of the high plateaux(14,000ft)of Mongolia and China, where temperatures fall to–40C,a Himalayan mountain goat (Capra Hircus) roams, which grows aunique, incredibly soft pashm, or inner coat, known in the west ascashmere to keep it warm. So the poorer the grazing and harsher thewinter the better quality of wool on theundercoat.

The wool is six times finer than human hair, is one of the world'smost rare and precious fibres; soft to handle, light an**arm.

In spring/summer, farmers comb the fine woollen undercoat from theneck and chest of, the goat. The fleece consists of the very fine,crimpy down and the usually longer outside coarse hairs. Cashmerefibres must be separated, by combing out thedown.

Cashmere is the world's rarest production fibre and is one of themost expensive in nat