FRAAS - Cashmere

Scarves are our world, our tradition and our heritage.
We are passionate about one very special material – we've been together a long time: Cashmere

This, likely the noblest of all natural fibres can be found in a wide variety of FRAAS accessories. Scarves, mufflers, capes, caps and gloves will help you to get through the winter nice and warm.

Cashmere is carefully gleaned by hand from the downy undercoat of the cashmere goat. The cashmere goats have been traditionally plucked or combed to procure the valuable downy wool. The annual yield per goat lies between 150 and 200 grams, which still must be taken in the hand to remove stray outer hairs, the so-called guard hairs. This is why a genuine cashmere scarf may represent the annual yield of wool from 1 – 2 cashmere goats. This meticulous processing makes cashmere one of the most valuable and costly of fibres. As tender as baby's breath, inimitably soft; that is the very natural feel of cashmere.

The name itself is derived from the region where it originated, in the Himalaya and Pamir mountains and in the areas bordering them. The "supplier" of the cashmere raw material is a flop-eared and extremely robust goat with horns, which has a grey, white, black or brown coat. In Europe almost exclusively white goats are bred so that the wool may be dyed to any desired colour.

FRAAS' passion for cashmere is also evident in the company logo: A cashmere thistle with the difficult latin name "dipsacus fullonum". If you touch it, be careful or else you will prick your finger.

But what does this scratchy plant, found principally in southern Europe have to do with the soft and cosy cashmere fabric? The explanation is surprising, but if you look more closely it is really quite obvious. Without this unassuming grey plant, the seed cone of the carding plant which is covered with countless tiny hooks, cashmere would not have the fine sheen which is so prized worldwide. And without this scratchy thistle you would not be able to enjoy the delicacy of this fabric which you won't want to take off once you have worn it.

It's an old secret that this thistle, which must be carefully handled so as not to crush the cone, is useful in the production of woven goods. The annals of the craft of weaving attest to the fact that these thistles were used as far back as 1400 to brush finish scarf material – and the Upper Franconian weavers at V. Fraas also relied on this plant to produce one-of-a-kind material from the time of the founding of the weaving mill in 1880.

More than 125 years later nothing has been changed – but for the first time the cashmere thistle comes into the limelight of the FRAAS logo, out of the shadow of its tender final product. Many of the manufacturing processes in the FRAAS weaving mill are fully automatically controlled and more and more technology replaces the traditional handicraft, but the thistle remains irreplaceable.

For the manufacture of high value FRAAS cashmere products, the fabric is combed and brushed with the thistle as it has been for centuries. To do this, huge drums are fitted by hand with over 1,200 thistle cones. The cashmere material is combed over these drums until the sheen and tenderness is achieved. This process is very time-consuming a requires the greatest care – it takes two days to completely fit a drum with thistle cones. The thistle cones only hold up on the combing drum for no more than one or two weeks, and then the drum must be refitted anew.

The great effort for quality that meets the highest standards – the story is also the story of FRAAS quality. That's why the accessories we produce stand in the symbol of the thistle.

Our latest cashmere products:

Woven stole cashmere

149.00 EUR

Oversize square cashmere mix

169.00 EUR

89.95 EUR