Cashmere Clothing

Loch Leven

A “new beginning” seems to be on the cards for the cashmere factory in Kinross near Loch Leven. The company has been through a rough time with a four-day week and even a one week shut-down as the fall in demand for Scottish cashmere hit sales.

If Dawson International’s mill had closed it would have had a terrible effect on the Kinross-shire economy, as many of the local people are employed by the firm or are otherwise connected to it.

The Kinross company is nearly 150 years old and it maybe this rich heritage is part of what attracted the new Chinese owners. The owners are giving assurances that the 200 jobs are safe, at least for now and production of their finest Scottish cashmere will continue at the mill as normal, for the time being.

Mend that cashmere jumper?

Is your cashmere worn out and tired looking? Are you really fed up that your cheap cashmere didn’t wear well? Don’t despair, help is at hand if you live in that most civilized of cities, Edinburgh!

John Lewis in Edinburgh is making an effort to help shoppers get into the ‘credit crunch’ spirit by offering a series of “make do and mend” classes in the store.
The classes will show you how to care for your cashmere and how to make minor repairs.

They will help you re-invent your favourite cashmere pieces by adding new trimmings or repair worn favourites. Advice will include:
How to sew on a button (No- really, this is deadly serious, stop giggling at the back!)
How to darn cashmere
Not to mention using patches and motifs to revive clothes.(I’m thinking Laura Ashley fabric elbow pads, or is that a tad too retro?)

The classes are free, last 2 hours and only 10 people can attend. You pay for any materials/trimmings etc.
You can get more details from the store.

Of course if you’d bought top quality cashmere clothing in the first place…ah well, too late now

Would you buy cashmere blended with soya of all things? The new ‘eco-friendly’ option in the US is a blend of 85% soya residue (eeew!)and 15% cashmere.

Knitwit (shopknitwit.com,) is introducing an eco-friendly soybean/cashmere blend for next Autumn 2009 and calling it “Tofu Cashmere”. The fibre is made from a mix of the unused proteins left after the production of soybean oil, tofu and soyamilk and cashmere.

They say that by turning this waste into an ‘all-natural’ product which possesses some of cashmere best characteristics the wearer’s carbon footprint is somehow reduced. Erm, it’s hard to see how this works, exactly. I can see that producing a fibre from the waste is possibly a good idea – but it rather depends how much energy input is needed to turn it into fibre doesn’t it? So I think we need to be a bit cautious about these claims to be ‘green’. Eco-friendly’s a rather catch all term and I find it hard to see how something that involved an industrial process like this can be greener than natural cashmere, which seems to be what they are implying.

They say:

“Tofu Cashmere’s” incredible soft-to-hand feel, second-skin comfort, luster and durability keep in line with Knitwit’s uncompromising quality, style and comfort.

It seems the fabric produced, although soft to the touch doesn’t have cashmere’s heat retaining properties and that might be a big advantage in some parts of the world. Here in the UK we like cashmere for it’s comforting warmth so maybe not so great here!

Still their Tofu Cashmere collection includes some celebrities favourite styles, like a printed zip hoodie (seen on Paris Hilton, Denise Richards, Heidi Montag.)

Apparently it will come in Knitwit’s four signature prints; leopard, zebra, camouflage and geometric pattern and as crew-necks, v-necks and reversible wraps.

Anyway it will be in shops, even on in the UK, from July 30th. I was really thrown by their claim that they had a retailer in Stradmore (Never heard of it? Me & google either!)Turns out they meant Stanmore (Ah right! Y’know, not far from Watford, that sort of area.) Or you can shop online & they ship world wide, so might be worth a look. I quite like the sound of their cashmere/silk blend too.