FABRIC DEVELOPMENT    lousmijn van den akker   fabric development   product development   checks&stripes

There are some 260.000 Cashmere goats in Upper Mustang, one of the Himalayan provinces of Nepal. There are about 3000 farm families who try to survive on Cashmere goat farming and the harvest of the precious fiber. There are 200.000 adult goats and about 60.000 baby goats happily living at the top of the world: at an altitude of 2000 to 8000 meter.
Each adult cashmere goat grows an average of 200 grams per year of the highly valuable cashmere fiber. Cashmere is the most delicate luxury fiber of the entire Himalaya’s. And the only luxury fiber that grows in Nepal. The farmers are sitting on top of a gold mine, in textile terms, but are nevertheless living a poor life under harsh conditions. The expensive fiber leaves the country for hardly any money at all, yet the end product is highly expensive. Something needs to change.