Cashmere at its best: how is cashmere sourced?
For four decades, Maison Eric Bompard has preserved traditions, developing an expertise on cashmere. Experience, a caring approach, mastery, creativity and the love of a job well done allows this material to express itself spectacularly.
Selecting goats and collecting the material
In selecting herds of cashmere goats in the mountains of Mongolia based upon the quality of their wool, Maison Bompard is careful to cultivate the highest-quality cashmere on a short-circuit basis: grade A cashmere.
Natural cashmere fibres are collected and sorted by hand in order to achieve exceptionally fine fibre (between 15.5 and 16 microns).
This fineness, along with the length of the fibre, ensures the cashmere’s softness and its durability.
Choosing fibres and knitting techniques
To achieve magnificent colours for its cashmere, La Maison Bompard uses the whitest fibres, which are known for their purity. And, to guarantee the optimal quality of our cashmere, we use the twisting technique.
This consists of twisting the fibre to obtain a ply with the same diameter as the eye of the needle, allowing for a truly dense knit.
Clothing manufactured in this way stands out through its enveloping softness and warmth, lasting shape and great durability.
Perfect knowledge of the entire production industry
Let’s get back to the source, in Inner Mongolia. Here, the herds of Capra Hiscus goats, selected by Maison Bompard, are reared on a partly free-roaming basis in a bracing climate, encouraging their highly rare and soft fleece to grow. In this part of the world, temperatures can range between -50 degrees Celsius in winter and +45 degrees Celsius in summer.
When temperatures begin to warm in April and the goats begin to shed, the cashmere fibre is gathered by combing and shearing, paying the utmost attention to the animals’ wellbeing.
A short-circuit production process for our cashmere
As a premium sustainable cashmere brand, our cashmere is traceable and ethically sourced. All our clothing is designed in France in our design office and is manufactured locally in Inner Mongolia.
For 40 years, Maison Bompard has partnered with an ongoing network of local suppliers and farmers.
Short-circuit, at-source production helps support the local industry, preserve traditional ways of life, and helps us benefit from total material traceability.
Labels which guarantee our ethical and eco-responsible commitments
To guarantee our commitment towards ethics and eco-responsible practices, most of our suppliers have OEKO-TEX® STeP certification. This label ensures that our products are manufactured according to sustainable processes, in working conditions which are respectful of the environment and are socially responsible.
Maison Eric Bompard also works with independent label The Good Cashmere Standard AbTF, the goal of which is to improve the wellbeing of the goats, the working conditions of farmers and those of farm employees, as well as the environment in which they live and work.