Saturday, December 13, 2008

A Black Cashmere Sweater Makes for a Nice Gift

By Travis Killian

A perfect gift for anyone would be a black cashmere sweater. You could say that a cashmere is like a fine crystal, it can be given with pride and received with appreciation. It feels great to give a gift that you can be confident that will be appreciated and it is equally rewarding to receive a special, personal gift. There is almost a universal, silent satisfaction that a person gets when they receive a cashmere sweater.

If you have ever worn a cashmere sweater, then you know how luxurious that it feels to have this fine fabric against your skin. A black cashmere sweater will amplify this feeling because of its high level of sophistication and classiness that it suggests. Everyone else will appreciate the value of your sweater and recognize it when you wear it around.

That value is not limited to the price tag alone, although the price by itself is already something to talk about. The value of a black cashmere sweater also derives from the difficulty of obtaining the wool and weaving that into the sweater that you see.

Today, most of our supply of cashmere comes from China. However, when cashmere first became popular, cashmere came from the wool from goats in the violence-torn province of Kashmir. What makes cashmere so special is that it truly is a work of nature's art. These goats have evolved for thousands of years to adapt to their extremely cold environments to create a remarkable fur.

Only the underdown from the breast and the underbelly of the goats are taken in springtime when they shed their hair. You can get only 150 grams of underdown from each goat, but wool from these parts are the softest. Goat wool is not like sheep wool. The fibers are shorter. This makes it harder to weave the wool into fabrics and garments. The finest wool comes from white goats, and these are subsequently dyed to produce the elegant black cashmere sweaters.

The outstanding qualities of the cashmere sweater fabric plus its relative rarity have combined to make the black cashmere sweater a true thing of value. The rich and famous know that. It is said that the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte was so smitten with a liking for cashmere fabrics that she prevailed upon the Emperor to obtain for her no less than seventeen cashmere shawls.

When you give your gift of a black cashmere sweater, it may help for you to furnish a brief historical note about the origins of the cashmere sweater. The historical perspective may engender more appreciation from your recipient.

But when they wear your gift, they cannot help but notice the way the sweater sets off the colors of the clothes they wear with it. The blacks will reach the full fruition of their elegance and the other colors will burst into more vivid clarity when they hang in contrast to the lush exquisiteness of the black cashmere sweater. - 16003

About the Author: