Cashmere: A Noble and Smart Fiber

Cashmere World    Translate This Article
11 October 2013

Press Release, 11 October 2013 - Serenity prevailed at the Cashmere World 2013 that closed its doors on 27 September 2013, after three days of intense activity between more than 60 exhibitors and 2000 buyers who visited the fair. Since its relocation from Beijing to Hong Kong last year, the world's only trade fair dedicated to cashmere and other noble fibres has found its mark and settled well in the luminous, elegant Hall 5F of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Cashmere World is co-organised by the China Chamber of Commerce of Import & export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal by-Products and UBM Asia Ltd. It runs concurrently with Fashion Access, an exhibition dedicated to head-to-toe fashions, enabling both fairs to benefit from each other's synergy.

'It is a great advantage that both Cashmere World and Fashion Access are held at the same time', said New York Look's buyer, Jayme Ramos. 'Not only could I find the cashmere scarves I was looking for but also some awesome accessories', she added.

Despite the on-going rising prices of the raw material, the industry is looking at the future with composure. The consensus among the majority of the exhibitors is to privilege quality of their products over quantity, and to become more service oriented towards their customers. For example by accepting small quantity orders, even if it means more administration handling and less productivity.

While suppliers such as Nepal's Cashmere Parachute and Spain's Teixidors, take pride in preserving and displaying the authenticity of their artisanal production, others such as Mongolia's Jargal Cashmere and Italy's Lora and Festa strive at developing innovative technologies that bring cashmere to another level of sophistication.

In order to make them more resistant and comfortable, children and baby apparel manufacturer, Jargal Cashmere incorporates sparkle cording manufactured in Korea and stretch to its garments. Smart textiles have moved from being the subject of intensive R&D into fully realised products. Nano-technologies can now be applied to cashmere as in Lora & Festa's new stain resistant and self-cleaning NanoCashmere range of garments. This special coating, developed in conjunction with the City University of Hong Kong, can be applied before or after spinning and respects the natural quality and hand-feel of cashmere, according to Lora & Festa's CEO, Edoardo Festa Bianchet.

Afghanistan: The New Frontier of Cashmere

There was a lot of buzz around the AfghanMade cashmere booth. Afghanistan is currently the third largest producer of cashmere in the world after China and Mongolia but due to lack of training and equipment, only 30 % of the country's cashmere is currently harvested. The potential for the cashmere industry in Afghanistan is significant. It has the makings to achieve 15% of the world's cashmere production, according to Benjamin Koendr, Project Manager for the task force for business and stability operations, an organisation part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which objective is to gradually re-establish commercial and economic activities in the country. Philip Eddleston, Cashmere Specialist and Advisor of AfghanMade, the label developed for and by the US task force project, predicted that Afghan Cashmere will come as an identified product by the end of 2014. Production from Afghanistan is hoped to alleviate the worrying global shortage of raw material, attributed to the reduction of grazing land and of animals raised for their fibres.

Meanwhile, despite the much talked about decrease of competitivity of China, the country is expected to remain the world's main cashmere manufacturer for the years to come. According to EastMAx Fashion's Managing Director, Alessandra Cocchi, while basic styles can be handled by developing countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia or Vietnam, top quality and luxury items remain largely the expertise of China. Outsourcing as well as quality, marketing, supply chain and sustainability issues; the advent of new technologies and fashion trends were among the hot topics debated at the Cashmere World Forum that was held over two days which attracted cashmere industry's experts and aficionados from all over the world.

The 2014 edition of Cashmere World will again take place in Hong Kong next fall from 25 - 27 September.

Copyright © Cashmere World 2012. All Rights Reserved

Global Good News comment:

While Global Good News can appreciate the appeal of stain resistant and self-cleaning garments, it does not regard this part of the Press Release as a positive trend for reasons of health concerns.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based—Total Knowledge based—programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.



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