By Aisha Harris Winter is upon us, which means that cashmere
sweaters - a staple of holiday gift-giving and cold-weather
fashion - have returned to store shelves. Those planning to
purchase a garment boasting the label "100 percent cashmere" can
expect a hefty price tag; at Banana Republic, one cardigan is
priced at $198; elsewhere, you can find cashmere sweaters for
upward of $500. Why is cashmere so much more expensive than
other kinds of wool? Its costly production process and scarcity.
Cashmere comes from the soft undercoat of goats bred to produce
the wool. It takes more than two goats to make a single two-ply
sweater. The fibers of the warming undercoat must be separated
from a coarser protective top coat during the spring molting
season, a labor-intensive process that typically involves
combing and sorting the hair by hand. These factors contribute
to the relatively low global production rate of cashmere -
approximately 30,000 pounds a year compared to about 3 million
pounds of sheep's wool. The name c