Sand River's cashmere cape Photo: Sand River

Cashmere, the perfect natural fiber, is also known as "fiber diamond" because of its softness, smoothness, gloss and warmth. The clothing made from cashmere is the best illustration of the Chinese traditional theory that man is an integral part of nature.

Sand River is a cashmere fashion brand from China. Its products include cashmere clothing, scarf, shawl, gloves, from women to men, from adults to children, very complete. So far, Sand River has opened more than 10 exclusive shops in Shanghai、Beijing、Suzhou、Nanjing and Chongqing.

Ms. Juliet Guo, founder of Sand River and a native Inner Mongolia lady, was in worship of cashmere, for its long history, natural spirit and amazing characters. Since its foundation in 2002, Sand River has been devoting itself to be the loyal preacher of cashmere, and the core advantages of Sand River are its special design and premium cashmere quality. In the intense market competition, Sand River focus on making the best cashmere fashion and products to consumers, keeping its unique elegance and peace.

Sand River's core value is as follow: Be sincere to products, be kind to the vast land and be respectful to herdsman. The value has nothing to do with business and profit, but is about life attitude and the ultimate concern.

Alxa cashmere: the Soul Material

Cashmere originates in Kashmir, the border zone of India and Pakistan, and it used to be the love of western royal family, just like china. In 1796, the Kashmir dominator gave a cashmere shawl as present to a friend from Baghdad. The cashmere shawl came all the way to Napoleon through the Egypt, and it became Josephine Empress's favorite one. Cashmere had been very popular in the west and been necessities to many noble ladies since then.

From Tang Dynasty about 1000 years ago, Chinese began to use cashmere as the textile material, which was called "inner wool" then. The light and warm clothing made from cashmere was very popular with Chinese people. Heavenly Creations, an well-known encyclopedia authored by Song Yingxing, a great scientist of Ming Dynasty, has a chapter describing how to make cashmere cloth.

Nowadays, about 80% of raw cashmere is produced in China, while China's best cashmere is in Alxa, a desert densely distributed region in Inner Mongolia. In the recent years, the high-quality raw cashmere has been rarer and rarer. Many "Northeastern bill goats" are introduced into Inner Mongolia to put out to stud. Their reproductive performance is super, but the cashmere of their offspring is short and thick, far beneath that of Alxa goat. It is the fineness and length that determine the quality of cashmere. Alxa cashmere used by Sand River has fineness around 14-15.5 micron, and length around 36 cm, which is the best grade of cashmere.

Sand River uses the Alxa cashmere to produce "200-count" scarf. The so called "200-count", means that the 1g cashmere can spin into yam of more than 200 meters. The higher quality of cashmere, the thinner scarf is. Sand River's "200-count"scarf is so thin and light that it is semi-transparent, and can be folded into a very small piece.

In order to guarantee the supply of high-quality cashmere material, Sand River corporates with herdsmen in Alxa and built its own bases, in which there are more than 2000 goats, bred by 10 herdsman families. Sand River only uses the purebred Alxa bill goat to serve female goats. So that the full blood of Alxa goat can be preserved, and the luxury essence of cashmere can be guaranteed.

The cashmere from Alxa area is very unique because of the local grass, such as wild onion, wild leeks, and wild garlic. These plants are very nourishing and can enhance goats' hair growth.

Herdsmen and their lamb Photo: Sand River

Taking Care of Goats like Children

Sand River spends considerable amount of capital to take care of goats. Sand River makes very detailed "work standard" to advise the herdsmen on how to feed the goat and collect the cashmere. For example, damp will affect the quality of cashmere, and make it hard to dye. In the pasture of Sand River, goat cot is located on airy and dry area, so that the goats won't get cold on stomach. Besides, the herdsmen are required to bath the goats regularly in order to keep the fur fluffy and clean.

The herdsmen are required to use water from spring and running river to feed goats, while they have to keep the goats away from pool, because water in pool may be polluted or have parasite. The lambs are feed with soy milk before 2 years old. The goat cot is filled with hay to keep warm and comfortable in the big freeze.

"Every winter is not easy for us," Ms. Guo said, "we pay great attention on the safety and health of our goats. Once the weather forecast says there's a snowstorm in Inner Mongolia, we are very anxious, and afraid of lambs' survivorship. " Lamb is the hope of pasture, and the baby of herdsman. Cashmere from lambs younger than 2 years old is called "baby cashmere", which is the premium in all kinds of cashmere.

How a cashmere artwork is made?
  
Wisdom, handicraft, design, and fashion, are the keys words in the transition process from cashmere raw material to exquisite clothing.

April and May are the best timing for collecting cashmere, when the fluff on goats' heads begins to shed. Herdsman will brush goats with a long steel comb, stained with milk and butter. Piles of cashmere are "scratched" from goats, and the experienced herdsmen can distinguish high quality cashmere from lower quality one. Sand River never blends premium cashmere and inferior cashmere. It is the cashmere with length of 36-plus cm and fineness around 14-15micron that will be picked as Sand River's raw material.

After scratched from goat, the raw cashmere will be "combed" by machine. The oddments within will be cleaned up. Then there's the "washing" period, the raw cashmere will be soaked with water, with some special detergent. The last step is drying the wet cashmere and tucking it into bags, so that the cashmere can be preserved for a long time. All the above processes are completed in Inner Mongolia.

At the same time, Junko Koshino, the chief designer of Sand River, has been on her way of designing. Designing is almost one year prior to production.

With a handful of cashmere, you may feel its softness and bounce, full of life's energy and plentifulness. We should cherish and be grateful for the god-given fiber, so soft and delicate, keeping us away from cold. What's more, there's no need to pay for it with the lives of other animals. Harmony and co-existence are true spirit of cashmere.

Keep a long-term horizon

Because of cashmere's rareness, Sand River never position itself as fast fashion like ZARA or H&M. From source to design, from production to sales, Sand River is treating every piece of cashmere clothing as if it is an artwork.

When entering Japan market in 2012, Sand River received the strictest quality testing, and got the highest grade in every respect. So far, the market performance of Sand River in Japan is very good.

"Be sincere to product, be kind to the vast land and be respectful to herdsman." Sand River's core value has nothing to do with business and profit, but is about life attitude and the ultimate belief. Only when the short-term profit and growth rapid are not the prime concern would really desirable prospect can be expected.