How To Care For Cashmere Clothing
When you purchase your first or adding to a collection of 100% cashmere jumpers or knitwear, you are investing in an original design, made with loving care and attention to detail.
Using only the best cashmere yarn, our garments are carefully knitted using the finest and longest fibres to give you an item of quality and durability, Your garment should last you at least 10 years if you treat with care and follow the instructions below. Do call us if you need any advice!
During packing and transporting, your item may have been compressed, so the first thing to do is to remove it from the packaging, pull it to shape and leave it to hang on a covered hanger for a short while before wearing to allow the fibres to relax and the item to regain its natural shape and size; this is especially important with our cashmere ponchos but also anything which usually requires gravity to do its thing and has a natural, relaxed shape, such as with our cashmere hoodies too. We aim to carefully pack all garments in a way where removing from the packaging it's as easy as possible to remove creases. When it comes to hoods, a light steam and allowing to hang for 24 hours is a wonderfully easy trick.
You may find that you can gain up to 10cm in length on some of our longer items, just by allowing the fibres to relax.
How often should I wash my cashmere?
Do not be afraid to wash your cashmere! We would recommend that you wash your garment after 5 wears as great quality cashmere improves with washing, and helps to retain its shape, keeping it so wonderfully soft and cuddly.
The best way to wash our cashmere is in the washing machine at 30 degrees. Take a look over at our how to wash cashmere for full instructions. Whilst you can machine wash all our cashmere sweaters, some other brands of cashmere are hand wash only. We suggest that you use cold water with either baby shampoo or mild detergent, gently squeezing until it is clean. Once it is clean, don't tightly squeeze your cashmere or stretch when wet, but place into shape and lay on a flat towel to air dry.
You can also dry clean your cashmere, follow the instructions on your care label.
One thing you should never do is add fabric softener to your wash, this coats the cashmere fibres and flattens the surface structure and the garment will wear out much quicker. We recommend that you use our Clothes Doctor Eco Wash for the best results.
Cashmere pilling
We are often asked how do I prevent my cashmere from pilling? You can't completely, it is a natural process that is caused by loose fibres on the surface of the yarn and friction on the first few wears. Because of the tension we use when knitting and the careful washing of our garments, the greatest feedback we receive from our customers is that our cashmere performs so much better than others in this respect. Pilling may occur and has nothing to do with the quality of the product. Every cashmere owner needs a little cashmere bobble remover. We have a handy cashmere comb that does the job brilliantly. We recommend using after the first few wears, before washing, but hereafter the fibres should settle and pilling cease.
Simply lay your clothing flat and run the comb over the surface gently catching and picking up any balls of fibre. Do not worry that you will damage the garment, as this tool has been specifically designed for this purpose. We would advise against cashmere shavers as this removes too much surface fibre and the danger of tearing holes into the garment is very likely.
How do I remove stains?
We would advise against brushing or soaking the garment to remove stains, just gently put a drop of mild detergent on the spot and pop it into the machine at 30 degrees.
How to store cashmere
Always keep your cashmere in a breathable knitwear storage bag, don't use plastic bags as it needs to breathe, with an Anti-Moth paper sachet if possible; that way those nasty moths won't get a chance to have a feast on your cashmere. When storing cashmere always make sure it is clean as there is nothing moths love more than the smell of worn cashmere. For more guidance on protecting your clothes from moths read our blog on do moths eat clothes.