Anchor Division - livin' fast

Mr. Porter // The Edit : Cashmere - Loro Piana

Fabric names are often delectably expressive - take the crisp sound of the word “cotton” for instance, or the shiny, clean connotations of “nylon”. Few are as indicative as cashmere, however, which is widely regarded as the precious stone of the textile world - a notion evidenced by the fact that it takes approximately four years for one cashmere goat to grow enough wool for a single sweater. Man has been sourcing this exquisite textile from the cashmere goat since the 3rd century BC, but it was a French revolutionary general stationed in Egypt who helped set the trend in motion in Europe when he sent a cashmere shawl to his wife in Paris. By the 19th century it had gained traction across the continent (helped, no doubt, by Queen Victoria being a fan), when the wool was imported from Tibet, spun into yarn in France and woven into sweaters in Scotland. Neither monarch nor revolutionary, it seems, can resist this timelessly tactile knitwear - and neither can we.