Ten things you should know about cashmere before you buy

Updated: Jan 17, 2018 chinadaily.com.cn Print

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Cashmere dyed blue [Photo/VCG]

As Frost's Descent, the 18th of 24 solar terms, fell on Oct 23, winter is coming around.

If you want to keep stylish and dislike heavy clothes on cold days, cashmere products would be a better choice. They are light, fine and can bring warmth, especially 100 percent cashmere sweaters and overcoats.

According to Li Na, director of the quality testing department of Erdos Group, a Chinese cashmere clothes producer based in Ordos in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Chinese people often prefer cashmere products with less ball-up, while the foreign customers pay more attention to the design. Thus their sweaters for the domestic market were tightly knitted to decrease the pilling.

Here are 10 things you should know before purchasing a cashmere product.

Inner Mongolia autonomous region in China [Photo/VCG]

The home to the best cashmere in the world is the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in China.

Raw cashmere [Photo/VCG]

2. Cashmere is lighter and warmer than wool; the former is from goat, the latter, sheep.

Two little goat in Kubuqi Desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Sep 13, 2017. [Photo by Wang Yinuo/chinadaily.com.cn]

3. A basic sweater made of 100 percent cashmere will need cashmere from four to five goats.

Stretchable cashmere [Photo/VCG]

4. Compared to solid and thick wool fiber, cashmere fiber is hollow and much more stretchable.

Baby goat and their mother [Photo/VCG]

5. The younger the goat is, the better its cashmere will be.

Cashmere sweater [Photo/VCG]

6. As long as it is cashmere, it will ball up. Think again when some vendor boasts their cashmere coats have no ball-up.

Cashmere sweaters [Photo/VCG]

7. The average factory price of a 100 percent cashmere sweater is above 600 yuan ($90) nowadays in China. If the price is much lower than this, think twice.