Most of us love to wear cashmere products, but hardly few of us know: What is Cashmere?

It is a wool fabric which is used to prepare various woolen clothing items like scarves, sweaters, hats, socks etc. It has got it’s name from a state in North of India called “Kashmir”. Kashmir was the first source from where it was exported to various parts of world. Slowly it got popular due to its softness, light weight and warm nature. Now it is produced in various parts of world.

Cashmere fabric is made from very fine undercoat of goat hairs. These goats are found in very high altitude areas where winter temperatures go well below freezing.

With its popularity, lot of products have come to market which are labeled as cashmere but they are not 100% pure and other types of wool is mixed to lower the cost. For an item to be labeled as 100% cashmere it should conform to U.S Wool Products labeling Act. This act in brief says that a product should be labeled as cashmere only if it contains:

• undercoat fibers of cashmere goat
• the average diameter of the fiber less than 19 micron
• coefficient of variation should not be more than 24%
• coarse hair content (hairs with diameter great than 30 micron) should not be more than 3% (by weight)

With lot of adulterated cashmere wool products in the market, it is sometimes hard to find which one is pure. If you are buying online, make sure the seller has a test certificate which shows clearly that it has been tested and has been found 100% pure.