Scottish cashmere is considered the best in the world, thanks to a combination of our textile heritage and natural landscape
Words by SALLY COFFEY
Cashmere, that super-soft wool from the Kashmir goat, a breed that originated in the Kashmir region of India, has long been considered the finest material for knitting and weaving cosy scarves and jumpers.
The wool is so soft as it is the downy undercoat grown beneath coarser, weather-proof hair by the goats, which keeps them warm in winter, and which is then shed in spring and summer.
Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon, is said to have popularised the wearing of Kashmir in the French court after her husband brought her back a pashmina Kashmir shawl from an expedition in Egypt.
It’s easy to see how the fashion travelled from the French court to the Scottish court (with the name becoming anglicised along the way) encouraging Scottish mills to begin spinning the yarn into fine fabric to exploit this new trend. But what’s harder to see is how a little country in western Europe became the world leader (at least in terms of quality) of luxurious garments spun from a raw material that originally comes from Asia.
Jenny Urquhart, Chairman of Johnstons of Elgin, says the truth is, many people don’t know exactly why the cashmere industry in Scotland has proved so successful, but that the outstandingly soft water that runs through our country plays a big part.
Jenny says: “The soft, Scottish water near our Elgin and Hawick mills is part of what makes our cashmere so unique. It’s one of the reasons why Scottish cashmere has acquired a reputation the world over for its natural softness.”
If anyone knows Scottish cashmere, it’s Johnstons of Elgin, a name that’s almost as synonymous with cashmere as cashmere itself is with Scotland.
And Jenny is right in that Scottish cashmere is classed as such as it is washed and softened in Scottish water and spun and knitted here.
Jenny says that having such good quality water means that Scottish cashmere can be treated more gently than cashmere produced in other parts of the world, reducing the need for chemicals.
“This is in sharp contrast to other regions,” Jenny says, “where the cashmere is often softened artificially at the end of a process which has involved significant chemical damage to the fibre. Scottish cashmere is the real thing. The best quality cashmere in the world.”
And aside from our natural assets, Scotland’s long heritage of weaving and knitting has also served us well.
Johnstons of Elgin has been in operation since 1797, when its founder
