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Cashmere World broadens scope to embrace fine fibres

10 Jun '14

3 min read

Strategically located in Asia’s fashion hub in Hong Kong, Cashmere World is far more than a trade fair. It is an integrated trade event that covers the whole supply chain of the cashmere sector - from the herds grazing on the high Mongolian plateau through the combing and processing of raw cashmere into the yarn that makes the wonderful sweaters and garments manufactured in leading countries such as Italy and Scotland.

As a fashion event, Cashmere World is strengthened by the synergy created by being held concurrently alongside Asia’s leading fair for head-to-toe fashion, Fashion Access.

And it is not just “fashion” that buyers can see at Cashmere World but they will be seeing luxury as cashmere is one of the world’s most exclusive fine fibres that has been appreciated for centuries by royalty and now by fashion experts and dilettantes for its enduring qualities of softness and lightness combined with warmth.

Feedback from exhibitors and visitors to Cashmere World in the last couple of years has made it clear that cashmere is often combined with other luxurious fibres such as silk and superfine merino wool to create hybrid garments and sweaters. In addition, there is a whole industry of fine fibres prospering in the heights of the Andean mountains in places such as Puno located in the Peruvian Andes. Hundreds of thousands of alpaca mountain goats are bred for the fine fibres they produce in cold conditions similar to those in Outer Mongolia and in the foothills of the Himalayas.

These fine Andean fibres eventually reach the shelves of department stores and western boutiques in the form of alpaca sweaters manufactured by leading corporations with international reputations such as Incotops and Michell.

Along with vicuna which is the finest, most expensive and the rarest of fine fibre from the Andes, alpaca garments are part of the luxury range of fine fibres that compete with cashmere and baby yak but hail from the opposite side of the planet itself.

List of fine fibres for luxury garments

Vicuna, Alpaca, Muskox (Qivlut), Merino, Angora Rabbit, Cashmere, Baby Yak Down, Camel Down, Guanaco, Llama, Chinchilla and Mohair.

All the above fine fibres have their place in the world of luxury and it is a sector that has expanded dramatically in the last decade with the burgeoning middle classes in China and the BRICS looking for luxury products of all kinds - including sweaters and garments made from the finest and rarest fibres on earth.

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