Feeling cuddly in your cashmere? It may have rat in it
LUXURY cashmere jumpers costing hundreds of pounds may contain cheap materials including rat fur.
Low- price fibres are being woven into garments and then labelled as genuine cashmere, say industry insiders including TV presenter Selina Scott.
One famous name producer, the Edinburgh Woollen Mill, will be taken to court this week following allegations that it mislabelled scarves as ‘100 per cent cashmere’.
Trading standards chiefs claim the products were actually a mix of cashmere and other materials.
The company denies the allegations and has made clear it will vigorously defend the case.
However, supporters of cashmere goat farmers in China and Mongolia, say their efforts and industry are being undermined by fraud and mislabelling.
Miss Scott investigated the industry in preparation for the coming launch of her own ethical cashmere collection and she believes the problem is widespread. She said: ‘It’s an absolute scam. It is a well-recognised fact in the industry that parts of the cashmere trade have been corrupted.’
She said she had no faith whatsoever that cheap cashmere was genuine and said the fraudulent trade undermined the livelihoods of goat herders in Mongolia, because of a fall in demand for highquality cashmere.
‘The industry has been involved in a race to drive down prices,’ she said.
Global cashmere production is about 7.5million kilograms, however sales of products carrying the name are much higher. It was reported two years ago that a million items of cashmere clothing seized from Chi- nese-run firms in Rome were found to be a mixture of acrylic, viscose and fur from rats and other animals.
Malcolm Campbell, managing director of the Cloth of Kings in Fife, who has worked for more than four decades in the textile industry, said: ‘ There are not enough cashmere goats in the world to produce the cashmere that is on sale.
‘The more basic cheaters will use acrylic or polyester in the blend. A lot of the blends will have 50 per cent or 60 per cent cashmere and 50 per cent or 40 per cent modified sheep or yak wool. It is very difficult to check. Much of the cashmere that is on sale and sold as 100 per cent cashmere has a percentage of modified wool.’ Mr Campbell, who has travelled to cashmere factories in China, said some used a wool stretching machine, which can make finer wool fibres. These are blended with cashmere, and sold as ‘100 per cent cashmere’.
Karl Spilhaus, the president of the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute ( CCMI), which represents producers and tests cashmere garments around the world, told the Sunday Times: ‘There is a significant problem on the British High Street. We have tested many products and found a significant amount of mislabelling.’
The CCMI has previously complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about Edinburgh Woollen Mill, claiming its ‘pure cashmere’ scarves are not 100 per cent cashmere. The complaint was not upheld after the retailer provided tests results showing the products were authentic.
In a statement, Edinburgh Woollen Mill said: ‘ We strongly refute these claims and will continue to vigorously defend them.
It added: ‘The cashmere products sold by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill are subject to robust independent testing by experts in the fibre-testing field. ‘