Cashmere everyone knows that it is a luxury, but we don't know the rareness of cashmere. Today, Xiaobian takes everyone to see why cashmere is so precious.
The fate behind "soft gold"
The grassland will not wake up until the spring breeze comes. However, on the Alashan Plateau at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, the violent wind blowing makes every spring come to a slow and difficult time. To mid-April, the green The traces will emerge from the grass under the next year, and the three or four heavy rains that followed will quickly join the festival, and the green hills and pastures will be dyed within a few days. Together with spring, there are flocks, thousands of flocks, like a pearl scattered into the new green grassland. In fact, sheep is more precious than pearls. As the world's highest grade of superfine cashmere, Alxa and Arbas almost cover the world's main raw materials for luxury cashmere. As the weather gets warmer, the season of collecting cashmere is coming soon. Soon after, a valuable cashmere scarf will hang into the window of Fifth Avenue in Paris. Under the subtle illumination of the light, there will be light if there is no light. The nickname given to it by the commercial society is "soft gold." ".
The "soft gold" that is on the Fifth Avenue seems to be born, just like the spring of the Alashan grassland. Few people try to tell the story behind an expensive shawl, just as few people know that before the spring comes, the grasslands at minus 30 degrees are covered with heavy snow, and how the flocks and herders live together.
But Guo Xiuling tried to tell, SAND RIVER, a Chinese cashmere luxury brand founded by her, told the main venue of Paris Fashion Week, telling it at a university in New York, at a large or small salon or assembly. This gave her a devout and passionate evangelist. Because she used to be one of the pastoral girls who grew up with the lambs, in fact, maybe still.
Wonderful measure
Before the cashmere is combed, a lamb has to go through two winters.
In the second winter, the cold will force them to grow a short layer of fluff on the skin. Compared with the 15 cm wool, the cashmere is only 3-5 cm, fine and smooth, and protect them for a long winter. Any textile material that humans can use cannot be compared with it. It can only be said that it is a miracle given to goats. However, in the first winter when the lamb was born, it was too late for him to help. They landed in large numbers from December to the New Year. At this time, the low temperatures of tens of degrees and the heavy snow that fell in succession are filling the grasslands with danger.
The herdsmen appeared at this time. Guo Xiuling still remembers that the home in winter became a kindergarten for sheep. Mom and Dad pay attention to see which sheep will bring it home when they are born at night. The fire was squatting on the children, and the empty space in front of the hustle and bustle was lying on the mother's mother. The cold was shut out of the door, and the fire jumped in the black eyes of the sheep. The man and the sheep stayed with each other waiting for the moment when the lambs landed.
"Baby is born soon! Baby is born soon!" Speaking of this, Guo Xiuling sang like a singer. "When it was born, it stood up, and the mother put out her tongue to help it get rid of the amniotic fluid. He will come over and follow. You play. When you grow up for a few more days, you go down, five or six sheep can't wait to climb all over your back and legs, kiss you, lick your ears, lick your chin. The family will suddenly become kindergarten."
The little girl Guo Xiuling's task is to feed the lambs to eat soy beans. As usual, they have to cook half-birth, and in the age of lack of supplies, the herdsmen used this method to supplement them. The lambs are crowded around, and the days of grabbing and cooking the soybeans last for four or five months until the spring breeze blows again. At this time, the new year's cashmere season is also close at hand.
Collecting the raw cashmere from the sheep, the time and patience required for this process is beyond imagination. The grassland gradually turned warm, and the warm velvet that the sheep grew up with had already passed the season. It was time to take them back naturally. Soon, the cashmere began to fall off. An adult sheep can produce 50 grams of cashmere a year, and the cashmere called Baby Cashmere is even more precious, only 30 grams. These tens of grams of fluff need to be spent by the herdsmen for about a month, followed by the speed at which the fluffs fall off, seven or eight times, and combed with a special iron comb.
"The temperature is a little higher, the velvet is a little retreat. This is an animal's natural instinct. If you don't lose it, you can't pull it. So the herdsmen are very gentle, just like treating their own children and combing them. ""
So far, the herdsmen on the Alashan grassland still use hand-brushed velvet, licking and combing each sheep. In April, the sun was bright, the clouds moved like mountains, casting large shadows, and the sheep lying in the shadows were lazy and scattered. From the time when Guo Xiuling was a little girl, she watched and participated in this gentle craft, and still used it on the Alashan grassland for decades. There is a wonderful measure between man and sheep that cannot be replaced by machines. Guo Xiuling showed me the small video she had taken. The herdsmen were softening, and a lamb climbed up and swayed from one person's back to the other. The lambs, which are only two or three months old, have young hooves and are tender and irony. They want to be mischievous with adults, jumping and jumping. The herdsmen in the video laughed and said in Mongolian: "Hey, hey this little guy!"
Dead end and sky
When Guo Xiuling and the little lambs played together, she did not know where the cashmere that had been carefully collected and raised by their hands went. It seems that no one is asking this. There was no shortage of cashmere merchants in the village. After a short stay, they left with raw materials and left herders and flocks behind the grasslands behind them. With this as a node, this grassland, along with all herders, disappeared in the next cashmere story. The high premiums of design, weaving, packaging, and branding are no longer relevant to them.
In Europe, the cashmere fashion trend that has emerged since the 19th century has already given birth to mature and well-known brands. With regard to how to design cashmere for warmth and fashion, the big-name designers are familiar with them. They not only give the cashmere the name of “soft goldâ€, but also make this precious raw material truly possess the luxury. The fact that it was impossible to raise cashmere goats on a large scale in Europe did not stump the manufacturers. In the early 19th century, Italy and Scotland began importing cashmere raw materials from China's Inner Mongolia, Tibet and other places to establish spinning and weaving factories. Today, when customers stop to watch a piece of cashmere in front of the window of Max Mara, the label shows a price higher than the price of raw materials by one hundred or two hundred times. People will only admire: "More precious Italian cashmere! â€
Many years later, Guo Xiuling fully understood the "next cashmere story." After graduating from college, she entered the cashmere Sweater factory in Ordos and became a workshop worker. The occlusion and depression of the small town made her panic. The vast majority of people succumb to the fate of the mercy, following the life of step by step. She began to learn English eagerly, and a tape of "Going Around the United States" could be heard back. Although she does not know at all, what can be learned by learning English. The factory imported a new type of machine, no one was interested in it, Guo Xiuling found a dusty manual, and compared it with the English dictionary, she did not know how to do it. The desire for knowledge and the yearning for the world made her a heterogeneous factory. Until one day, German experts came to the factory to visit, the translation completely couldn’t understand the terminology of the experts. An incredible scene happened. The obscure female worker on the assembly line suddenly spoke with German experts in fluent English. Her profession The insight is stunned. Since then, her fate has changed. She became the technical backbone of the factory. After a few years, she was invited to Germany to engage in technology research and development, and gradually grew into the top five experts in the world. Later, she even became a part of the cashmere story chain. In 2002, she returned to Germany to start a cashmere factory. With high quality Inner Mongolia cashmere raw materials and exquisite craftsmanship, she became Armani, Max Mara, etc. A supplier of world-class luxury brands. “Hold the best Chinese cashmere and tell the Italian story about the brand.â€
This is not the confusion of Guo Xiuling. In fact, almost no one knows that 75% of the world's cashmere is produced in China. Even after 2012, when Guo Xiuling decided to make her own cashmere brand, she followed the research team to the door of Harrods in London and asked: Where is the best cashmere in the world? Eighty percent of the answers are in Italy, and those who answer Inner Mongolia or Mongolia are almost zero.
The herdsmen are always behind the scenes. China is always behind the scenes. The world she devoted to relies on Chinese raw materials, but she cannot hear the voice of China.
"But what can we Chinese suppliers do? It is so detailed that even the tag is given to them. The brand is under an order - all kinds of goods are done well, and the boxes are also packed. This box is sent to Paris. Shop, that box was sent to a certain store in New York. The store received the goods directly and sold them. Everything is done by our suppliers, we can do this."
The turnaround came with destruction. The destruction took place in 2008. Under the pressure of domestic policy changes and brand pressure, the foundry as a supplier was unsustainable.
"Armani will say, give you Order, my price is this. Can you do it? You don't have no problem. Give Cambodia."
The factory began to face huge losses, employee turnover, and customer transfer. Guo Xiuling has never realized that she is in a weak position in this chain. She will only end up in the endless, like falling into a swamp, and she will die. It is impossible to compromise in the future. And she clearly has so many skilled manufacturing staff, simple herdsmen, core technology, and precious raw materials on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.
“The wisdom of all of us is working for this Name. Why?â€
In 2012, Guo Xiuling bid farewell to all the previous customers, and 90% of the business was cleared overnight. But she has no choice. This woman, who came from the depths of the grassland and walked along the cashmere industry chain for more than 20 years, saw the light and darkness in the chain at this moment. In the story of cashmere that comes with luxury, it is far more than a herder. Suppliers and skilled manufacturers, who live in different parts, share the same fate with the grassland herders. Unless they send out their own light, they can only stay behind the scenes, be separated, and be Uninformed, crushed, abandoned.
"We will never go that way again. That road has pushed me to the dead end, there are walls on all sides, there is no way to go. The situation is very clear: there is only one road left in the sky - I want to set up a Belong to our own brand, a brand belonging to everyone in Inner Mongolia.†Guo Xiuling stopped and emphasized: “All of us.â€
The beauty of a lamb
Six years later, the cashmere brand, called SAND RIVER, has more than a dozen stores in China and created China's “the first cashmere scarf to enter Paris Fashion Weekâ€. At the official invitation, SAND RIVER entered the main venue of Paris Fashion Week for six consecutive seasons and was taken to 13 countries after undergoing the test of one of the world's top luxury brand buyers. SAND RIVER is also coming soon from department stores or independent luxury stores from the US, UK, Germany, France and Dubai.
In the view of Hermann Simon, the world's master of management and the father of the invisible champion, SAND RIVER is undoubtedly the "invisible champion" of the world cashmere industry.
Guo Xiuling puts 90% of her energy on the product, which gives the brand a great leap. As a person who “has done something for Armaniâ€, she has exported the high-end luxury brand in the terminal with the core technology, the most advanced equipment and the most modern design. The first store opened at the Shanghai Bund Old Pier and “put the products directly into the conversation with the guestsâ€. The highest level of cashmere raw materials and fine craftsmanship in Inner Mongolia are unreservedly presented in this store.
When I was in the store, Guo Xiuling was more calm than I thought, and I was not eager to introduce how unique the design and how the material was refined. When she got up and walked to the booth, she suddenly became very quiet, her eyes stroking the exhibits in turn, like a mother looking at a daughter who didn't talk much. The lights are soft, the cashmere scarves are hanging side by side, the subtle shadows are cast between the fluff and the fluff, and the other thinner shawl is heavily colored, designed by Japanese heavyweight designer Junko Koshino. The hand, after more than a dozen times of careful color correction, finally presented this. The material that has been treated from the source has the power to be communicated to the face-to-face person without explanation. Even the creator himself is easy to silence in front of the perfect product.
Guo Xiuling has dedicated this “everything from beginning to endâ€, from the end of the herdsmen deep in the Alashan grassland to the consumer side in the old dock shop in Shanghai. She returned to the grassland with SAND RIVER's cashmere scarf and handed it back to the herdsmen's hands. The moment the herder's happiness made her shake.
"They thought, when they handed it out, it was still a dirty pile of velvet. When they came back, how did they become such a beautiful thing? They were very happy in their hands, and they wanted to bring it to try, and they had a cautious feeling. I can't imagine myself having something to do with such a beautiful thing! But I always have to say - no, it's related. Not only to the herdsmen, but also to the consumers, everything from design to factory to terminal business, all have a relationship with herders. The scarf that sells tens of thousands of dollars on Fifth Avenue, the herdsmen should be proud of it."
Guo Xiuling is helping the lambs to give back to the herdsmen who raised them. As long as you have heard the story of herders and sheep accompanying each other for the cold winter, it is difficult to forget it. In the winter, the herdsmen take care of the lambs. In the spring, the lambs give back the precious "soft gold". Is this called the unintentional arrangement of creation, or love? Guo Xiuling is more willing to believe that the latter, and most consumers in the world are still unclear about this. We have consumed expensive cashmere products, but we have not yet received the beauty behind a lamb.
In this sense, even a little bit of raw materials should not be wasted, because love can not be wasted.
SAND RIVER has many dolls made from cashmere.
"For example, the blue skirt of the doll, 20 grams, can't do anything in the factory, it has to be scrapped. But the lamb has only 50 grams of velvet a year. This little lamb will give back to her mother this year. Half of the things will be us. Throw it away. That won't work."
Obviously, she is building a new and sophisticated brand logic. If in the 15th century, cashmere meant handicrafts from the mysterious East; in the 19th century, cashmere meant a fashion luxury led by European big names. So, at the moment, Guo Xiuling and her SAND RIVER are redefining cashmere with Chinese-inspired ingenuity, inspired by the true cycle of herders, flocks and grasslands for thousands of years. How does a lamb express its love, and how do we receive it? This is no longer a question that expensive tags can answer, and the meaning of cashmere is slowly being rebuilt in the process we are trying to answer.
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