This precious yard was already known during the times of the Roman Empire and became popular in Europe at the end of the XVII century. Since then, it has always been appreciated and loved because of its extraordinary beauty and softness.

This fine fibre is named after Kashmir, an area in the Himalayan region of India which is the birthplace of the capra hircus laniger, the cashmere goat. However, Mongolia is the historical homeland of production and export of the yard.

The cashmere goat can live up to 6,000 metres of altitude. In those heights, the difference of temperature between night and day is very high: this has led to the development of the duvet, a thin shag with excellent thermoregulatory features for the body both at low and at high temperatures.

It is exactly this shag, under the woolly and rough fleece of the goat, the part which will be then used to obtain cashmere.

The wool is collected through manual combing during spring. An adult goat can provide from 100 to 200 grams of wool every year.

Therefore, this fibre is so precious both because of the small amount which is possible to gather and because of the excellent subsequent processing.

Once collected, the wool is manually separated according to its colour since each nuance of the duvet will absorb the colour in a different way during the dyeing of the thread.

Finally, specialized factories take care of the spinning of the fleece and turn it into light and precious yards. This is the origin of Del Santo’s knitwear.