My family have been working in the Textile industry for well over a century. It started with my Great Grandfather who ran his own woollen mill producing fine Scottish Tweeds. By the time my Father joined the business, their own brand of Macnab tweed was sold throughout the US, Europe and Asia, and he wanted to add cashmere to mix. In the past, Scottish cashmere was the finest in the world. However, as labour costs rose in the UK, it started to become too expensive to produce and unable to compete with the meteoric rise of China. Fast forward 100 years, and most of the world’s top grade cashmere now comes from the blustery plains of Inner Mongolia. My Dad first went up to Inner Mongolia some 40 years ago, and we have been working with our cashmere partners up there ever since.
In many ways, my eventual foray into this field was inevitable. After joining the family business over a decade ago, when I was pregnant with Milo, I wanted to make something for my little ones as cashmere is both so soft yet breathable. And, did you know that it is 8 times warmer than wool even though it is significantly lighter? Cashmere is also stronger and more durable than other fabrics, making it the perfect sustainable piece to hand down from sibling to sibling, and then of course, generation to generation.