Care

Caring for cashmere

How to wash it, dry it, store it — and what to put on the label.

Cashmere is a hair fibre, not a synthetic. It responds to gentle handling and punishes heat, agitation and neglect — which is why most garments that fail do so in a washing machine rather than on a body.

This page is written to be passed on. Take it, adapt it, put it on your own product pages or in the box. The last section covers the care labels we sew in, which is the part that has to be right before the goods leave us.

The short version

Five things that matter most

Wash by hand, cool

Cool water and a pH-neutral wool or cashmere detergent. A wool cycle at 30 °C on a machine that has one is an acceptable substitute — nothing warmer, nothing faster.

Dry flat, never hang

Press the water out, never wring. Reshape while damp and dry flat on a towel, away from radiators and direct sun. A wet knit on a hanger will stretch and stay stretched.

Let it rest

Give a garment a day or two between wears. Cashmere recovers its loft when it is not under tension, and rested fibres pill far less.

Pilling is normal — comb it

Pills come from friction, not poor quality, and are heaviest in the first few wears as short fibres work free. Lift them with a cashmere comb or stone. Never pull them off.

Store it clean and folded

Moths are drawn to skin oils and food traces, not to clean wool. Wash before storing, fold rather than hang, and keep cedar or lavender in the drawer.

In detail

How to look after it

Washing

Fill a basin with cool water and a small amount of pH-neutral wool detergent. Submerge the garment, press it gently a few times and leave it no more than a few minutes. Rinse in water of the same temperature — a sudden change in temperature is what felts wool, not water itself.

Support the weight when you lift it out. A soaked knit is heavy and will pull out of shape if held by the shoulders.

Do: Cool water, pH-neutral wool detergent, a short soak, and a rinse at the same temperature.
Never: Hot water, biological or enzyme detergent, bleach, or fabric softener — softener coats the fibre and flattens the handle.

Drying

Press the water out between your palms or roll the garment in a dry towel and press. Then lay it flat on a fresh towel, ease it back to its original measurements while it is still damp, and leave it to dry at room temperature.

Drying takes longer than people expect — a heavy gauge can need a full day. Turn it once so both faces dry evenly.

Do: Dry flat, reshape while damp, room temperature, turned once.
Never: Tumble drying, hanging, radiators, hairdryers or direct sunlight. Heat is what shrinks cashmere.

Pilling

Every natural fibre pills. It happens where the garment rubs — underarms, cuffs, seatbelt line, under a bag strap — as the shorter fibres in the yarn migrate to the surface. It is heaviest early on and settles down once those short fibres have gone.

Lay the piece flat and work a cashmere comb or pumice stone in one direction with light pressure.

Do: A cashmere comb or stone, flat surface, light pressure, one direction.
Never: Pulling pills off by hand or using a razor — both take fibre with them and thin the cloth.

Storing

Store clean. Moths feed on the traces we leave in a garment rather than on the fibre itself, so an unwashed piece put away for the summer is the one that gets eaten.

Fold, never hang — the weight of a knit on a hanger distorts the shoulders over months. For long storage use a breathable cotton bag with cedar or lavender; avoid sealed plastic, which traps moisture.

Do: Clean, folded, in a breathable bag with cedar or lavender.
Never: Hanging knitwear, sealed plastic, or storing anything that has been worn without washing it first.

Pressing

Steam rather than iron. Hold a steamer a few centimetres away and let the steam lift the fibre — it will recover most creases on its own. If you must iron, use the lowest wool setting through a pressing cloth and do not rest the iron's weight on the cloth.

Do: Steam at a distance, or a cool iron through a pressing cloth.
Never: A hot iron directly on the face of the fabric. It flattens the nap and leaves a permanent shine.

Professional cleaning

Gentle hand washing is kinder to a knit than repeated dry cleaning, and it is what we recommend for most knitwear. Structured and tailored woven pieces are the exception — anything with interlining, shoulder construction or a lining should go to a specialist cleaner, because washing will not survive the internal build.

Do: A specialist cleaner for tailored and lined pieces; tell them it is cashmere.
Never: A high-street express service for a structured coat, or dry cleaning a fine knit every few wears out of habit.

By construction

Not everything is washed the same way

A fine-gauge knit and a structured woven coat are the same fibre doing very different jobs. The garment's own label always takes precedence over general guidance.

Fine-gauge knitwear

Hand wash cool

12GG and 16GG pieces — the lightest constructions and the most prone to stretching when wet. Support the weight, always dry flat.

Heavy-gauge knitwear

Hand wash cool

3GG to 7GG. Holds far more water than it looks; press out thoroughly and expect a longer drying time.

Woven & tailored

Specialist dry clean

Coats, jackets and anything with interlining or a lining. Internal construction will not survive immersion.

Woven shirting & scarves

Hand wash cool

Unstructured woven pieces wash much like knitwear. Dry flat; press through a cloth while slightly damp.

Throws & blankets

Hand wash or gentle machine

Large pieces are heavy when wet — use a bath rather than a basin, and dry flat over several towels or a drying rack.

Camel, yak & wool

As cashmere

The same rules apply across our other fibres. Yak and camel are naturally more robust but respond to the same gentle handling.

Care labelling

Your labels, sewn in here

We don't manufacture trim. Neck labels, care labels, composition labels and hangtags are not made on our floors — our floors run fibre, yarn, cloth and garments. We introduce you to vetted Ulaanbaatar suppliers for all of it and coordinate the work alongside your production, so it arrives in time to go into the goods.

What we do is sew your labels in, as part of production, to your placement and specification. Tell us the destination markets at quotation and we will make sure the wording and symbol set the supplier produces match them.

The composition declaration and country-of-origin documentation we do issue ourselves, as the manufacturer — those are documents rather than trim.

Boxes, tissue, dust-bags and cashmere storage bags work the same way: sourced through the same supplier network, coordinated alongside production, not manufactured here.

OEM & private label

Questions about a specific construction?

If you are writing care copy for a particular programme and want it checked against how the piece was actually made, send it over — we will mark it up.

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