About the Materials: Cashmere

The Lanam Shop is truly fortunate to have a dedicated and informed customer base. Over time, customers have asked questions, shared knowledge, and helped shape our seasonal collections with their feedback. We’ve found that sharing more about our materials, careful crafting process, and the unique qualities of our garments brings greater appreciation and understanding to our work. Today, we want to share insight into our men’s and women’s cashmere collections—timeless, luxurious, and loved by generations.

What is Cashmere?

Cashmere is one of the most sought-after natural fibers in the world — and with good reason. Renowned for its incredible softness and warmth, cashmere is collected from goats that live in the harsh climate of the Gobi Desert, spanning Mongolia and northern China. While there’s no official “Cashmere goat,” the wool industry typically refers to Changthangi or Pashmina goats when speaking about true cashmere fiber sources.

These goats have an outer guard coat and a soft, insulating undercoat. Instead of shearing — which damages the fibers — herders gently brush the goats, collecting only the downy undercoat while leaving the coarse outer layer intact. This ethical, labor-intensive practice produces the highest quality fibers.

Where is Cashmere from?

Most of our cashmere comes from white or near-white Changthangi and Pashmina goats. These light-colored fibers dye more evenly and produce vivid, rich tones — perfect for The Lanam Shop’s signature color offerings. The goats roam freely in rocky, elevated terrain and are tended to by herders who carry on centuries-old traditions.

How Does Cashmere Differ?

Compared to mohair or other specialty wools from goats (like Pygora or Angora), cashmere fibers are significantly finer and more distinct in their layering, making them easier to separate cleanly. This leads to greater softness, purity, and long-term durability. The best fibers come from free-range, brushed goats, not farmed ones.

The Refining Process

After careful collection and sorting (removing any stray guard hairs), our cashmere is shipped to England for dyeing and spinning. The pure white hairs take dye beautifully, and we often create unique tones by blending multiple dye lots. Our yarns are spun tightly for long-lasting structure, then shipped to Scotland, where sweaters are hand-framed, hand-blocked, and hand-joined by skilled knitters using antique machinery.

Styles We Offer

We offer one of the most extensive cashmere collections available today, with over a dozen styles for men and women and nearly four dozen color options. All pieces are crafted to the highest standards in Scotland from English-spun Mongolian yarns.

Shop Top Men’s Cashmere Styles:

• Two-Ply V-Neck - featuring turnback cuffs, and a saddle shoulder
• Two-Ply Crew Neck - English country details and thickly knit cashmere
  
• Four-Ply Shawl Collar Cardigan - crafted in our "Royal Rib" pattern... truly exceptional
• Four-Ply Cable Knit Crew Neck - a rich cable and rib pattern
  

Shop Top Women’s Cashmere Styles:

• One-Ply Crew Neck Cardigan
  
• One-Ply Crew Neck Sweater
  

We also proudly carry cashmere from Johnstons of Elgin and offer a customizable build-your-own cashmere set.

Why Choose The Lanam Shop’s Cashmere?

Our sweaters are warm, soft, and built to last a lifetime. We don’t chase trends — we preserve traditions. Some of our best-selling styles have remained unchanged for more than a century. Each sweater is carefully hand-finished and available in an unmatched variety of sizes and colors. Need something custom? We can accommodate chest sizes up to 60 by request.

Shop Men’s Cashmere and Women’s Cashmere

Index of Terms:

Carding: a mechanical process that detangles wool, allowing it to be arranged in a single direction. This is helpful when the wool is spun.

Combing/Brushing: the delicate and time-consuming process by which cashmere fiber is removed from the coat. Long, specialized brushes and combs are used to remove the fiber.

Cashmere: fleece fiber collected from the soft, warm undercoat of the Kashmir goat.

Dye Lot: all the fiber from a specific dying. All of the fibers are exposed to a dye compound at a given time. Fibers exposed to the same compound but at different times are considered a different dye lot. Each lot, though close, produces slight color variations. These are normal, expected, and unavoidable.

Gobi Desert: a large desert spanning multiple countries including China and Mongolia. The desert is largely undeveloped and considered to be among the most pristine land on Earth. Temperatures can vacillate wildly throughout the course of a day. It is home to cashmere producing goats.

Guard Hair: the thick outer layer of wool fiber. It acts as a waterproofing layer and protects the soft inner layer. Guard hair or the “outer coat” is not suitable for the crafting of quality sweaters.

Kashmir: a region in the Himalayas where “Kashmir goats” are believed to have originated from.

Kashmir Goat: in the context of the wool industry a Kashmir goat refers to the Changthangi or Pashmina goat but can also colloquially include the Pygora goat, Nigora goat, and Angora goat.

Spinner: someone who transformers finished fibers into yarn. This can be achieved mechanically.