Mohair is the name given to fleece taken from the Mohair or Angora goat. It is a domestic breed of goat raised in Turkey, South Africa and Texas. The shearing of these goats occurs twice a year and produces a long silky haircoat, slightly curly, with a white-yellow colour, and doe not pill easily. It reaches an average fineness of between 24 and 60 microns and the length of the fibre varies between 15 and 25 centimetres. Mohair has become highly valued due to its ability to accept dyes; in fact the colouring is long lasting and particularly resistant. The renowned Kid Mohair is the hair sheared from young Angora Goats and is more valued and is used in garments of higher quality.
The outer coat of hair of the Tibetan bovine known as the Yak, is very long and bristly, the downy undercoat however is valued for its fineness that is between 15 to 9 microns. For this reason it is used as a substitute for cashmere. The undercoat is collected in spring by grooming the animals (de-hairing).
The Angora rabbit, which has a thick robust body covered with a long and soft fur known as wool, produces the highly prized Angora wool or Angora fibre. The major producer of this fibre is China, but is widespread in all of Europe and East Asia. The length of the fibre varies between 3 to 6 centimetres. The shearing, which is done every three months (four times a year), produces approximately 250 grams of wool which is extremely fine and light and has excellent heat and humidity absorption, this is especially true of the undercoat wool. With the surface hair of the so-called “giarra” rabbit, one obtains the classic prickly or bristle effect in garments to which it is added.
This is a new breed of goat obtained by crossbreeding an Angora or Mohair Billy goat with an Australian grazing goat. It is very similar to the Cashmere goat and is raised in New Zealand and Australia. The wool of the Cashgora combines the advantages of cashmere and mohair, maintaining the softness of the first and the brightness and sheen of the second. This fibre, medium fine, bright and white in colour, reaches a length of approximately 11 centimetres and its fineness is between 18 and 22 microns.
Cashmere goat (WS)
The production of cashmere is concentrated in the region of Central Asia, particularly in Iran, Afghanistan and Outer Mongolia even if unquestionably, the most prized and sought after quality comes from Inner Mongolia. A region mainly composed of arid plateaus, bordering the Great Wall of China and the Gobi desert and part of the Peoples Republic of China. In this area, situated at an altitude of one thousand meters, the temperature range between winter and summer reaches up to 60 °C, with winter temperatures reach up to -30 °C. It is this particular climatic context that makes the undercoat of the so goat soft and downy. The wild goats "Capra hircus aegragus" and "Capra Falconeri" are the ancestors of the current domestic goats from which cashmere is obtained, robust and hardy animals that can resist the low temperatures, and males can develop a height at “withers” that varies between 35 and 60 centimetres. To protect it from the cold the goat develops a very open fleece with long and relatively coarse hair. However the most precious part is that under the upper fleece an undercoat called a duvet, soft and silky. The fleece is mainly white, which is the most valued, but there are other tones of colours that range from brown to grey and red. The length of the fibre that composes the duvet varies between 20 to 40 millimetres and 12 to 19 microns of fineness. Chinese cashmere, considered as the finest found in nature, develops an average micron value that is between 14 to 15 microns. The insulating power of cashmere is considered to be ten times that of wool. The goats live in the wild and are guarded by a large group of Mongol shepherds who round up the flocks in the month of May when the fleece begins to moult, so as to be able to perform the operation of shearing-combing, which yields a down that is composed of duvet and ordinary fleece. After transportation to the collecting centres, the fibre is subject to a first selection based on its fineness, its colour and “sorting” (separation of the duvet from the coarser fibre). Each goat produces annually between 150 to 200 grams of duvet and it is estimated that there are more than 15 million animals that produce cashmere in the indicated regions.