Alashan cashmere is the downy undercoat of white goats raised in the Alxa League, the desert corner of western Inner Mongolia. It is graded among the finest cashmere in the world, commonly measured at 14 to 15.5 microns with fibres long enough to spin into yarn that holds its shape. The name is a place, not a brand.
You will see the word on our labels because that is where the fibre comes from. What follows is what the word actually tells you, what it does not, and how to read it against the rest of the cashmere on the market.
Where the Name Comes From
Alxa, written Alashan on most textile labels, is the westernmost league of Inner Mongolia. It is high, dry and cold, sitting on the edge of the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts. Winters run well below freezing for months, and there is very little moisture in the air. Goats that live there grow a dense undercoat to survive it, and that undercoat is the cashmere.
The animal is the Alashan white cashmere goat, a local breed kept for its down rather than its meat. The down is combed out in spring when the goats begin to shed, sorted by hand, then dehaired at a mill to remove the coarse guard hair. What is left is a small handful of usable fibre per animal per year. That scarcity is the first reason the word carries weight.
What Makes It Finer
Cashmere is graded on two numbers: fibre diameter, measured in microns, and fibre length, measured in millimetres. Finer fibre is softer against the skin. Longer fibre spins into a yarn with fewer loose ends, which means less pilling and a knit that keeps its shape after washing.
| Grade | Fibre diameter | Typical length | What it means in wear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alashan white cashmere | About 14 to 15.5 microns | Long, often above 36 mm | Softest hand, slowest to pill, holds shape |
| Standard Grade A cashmere | Under 16 microns | Around 34 to 36 mm | Soft, good recovery, most premium knitwear |
| Grade B cashmere | 16 to 19 microns | Shorter and more varied | Still cashmere, but coarser and pills faster |
| Fine merino wool | 17 to 19 microns | Long | Comparable softness in the best grades, tougher, cheaper |
The desert climate does the work. Cold, dry winters push the goat to grow a finer, denser undercoat than goats in milder regions, and the dry air keeps the fibre from coarsening. Mills in China have graded Alashan down at the top of their scale for decades, and the region supplies a share of the raw fibre that ends up in European and Japanese knitwear under other names.
If you want the fuller version of how micron, length and ply work together, our guide to spotting quality cashmere before you buy walks through it.
What the Word Does Not Tell You
Alashan on a label tells you where the raw fibre was combed. It does not tell you how much of the garment is cashmere, how the yarn was spun, or how densely it was knitted. Those three things decide how a piece feels and how long it lasts, and they vary enormously between products that all say the same word.
Our own range is a fair example, because we use the fibre two ways. The Cashmere Fingerless Gloves are one hundred per cent cashmere at twenty grams a pair, left undyed. The Alashan Cashmere-Blend Beanie is seven per cent Alashan cashmere and ninety-three per cent sheep wool, knitted in two layers to seventy grams. Both are honest. One is a fibre you are buying for softness against the skin; the other is a wool hat where a small amount of cashmere takes the prickle off the inside. We explain how to weigh that trade in cashmere blend versus pure cashmere.
The Alashan Cashmere-Blend Knit Collar uses the same seven per cent blend at a hundred and fifteen grams, which is why it can be worn tight at the neck all day without itching. The Undyed Cable-Knit Cashmere Shawl goes the other way: the down is carded together in its three natural colours, white, blue-grey and a faint purple, and never dyed. Undyed fibre is the easiest way to see what a region actually produces, because there is nothing covering it.
Alashan Cashmere and Mongolian Cashmere
These are not two different things. Alashan is a region inside Inner Mongolia, so Alashan cashmere is Mongolian cashmere from one specific place. The confusion comes from the country of Mongolia, north of the border, which also produces cashmere from the same broad goat family on similar high, cold grassland. Both are among the best sources in the world. The difference is that Alashan is a tighter geographic claim, and its white down is prized because it takes dye cleanly and, left undyed, reads as a clean ivory rather than a grey.
Mongolian wool, by contrast, is a different fibre from a different animal. It comes from sheep and is thicker and tougher. We have laid the two side by side in Mongolian wool versus cashmere, which is worth reading if you are choosing between a wool throw and a cashmere one.
How to Read It When You Shop
Treat the word as a starting point, then check three things. First, the fibre content: a percentage on the label, not a mood. Second, the weight in grams, which tells you how much fibre you are actually getting. Third, whether the seller can say where the fibre was processed, not just combed. A brand that gives you all three has nothing to hide. A brand that gives you the place name and nothing else is using it as decoration.
Everything we make from the fibre is in the cashmere edit, with the percentage and the grams on every page.
FAQ
Is Alashan cashmere better than regular cashmere?
It is among the finest grades by fibre diameter and length, which are the two measurements that decide softness and pilling. That makes it better raw material. Whether the finished garment is better depends on the percentage, the spinning and the knit density, which the region name does not control.
Why is Alashan cashmere finer?
The Alxa region is a cold, dry desert plateau. Goats grow a finer, denser undercoat to survive its winters, and the low humidity keeps the fibre from coarsening. The local white goat breed has also been selected for down quality over many generations.
Is Alashan the same as Mongolian cashmere?
Alashan is a region within Inner Mongolia, so it is a specific source of Mongolian cashmere rather than a competitor to it. The country of Mongolia produces comparable fibre from similar terrain, and both sit at the top of the market.
Does Alashan cashmere pill?
All cashmere pills in the first weeks of wear as short loose fibres work to the surface. Longer fibre pills less and stops sooner, which is one reason long-staple Alashan down is valued. A cashmere comb removes the pills without harming the knit.
Why is undyed Alashan cashmere a different colour?
The goats produce down in white, blue-grey and a pale purple. Most of it is dyed, which hides the natural shade. Left undyed and carded together, the fibre settles into a soft ivory-grey that varies slightly from batch to batch, because nothing has been added to standardise it.
