Cocoonu

Following Paris Fashion Week and the ‘The Ethical Fashion Show’, the world’s largest event devoted solely to eco and Fairtrade clothes – style is top of the agenda and discerning customers everywhere are looking for their next green purchase.

According to a recent report from the Cooperative bank, ethical consumerism is now worth £29.3bn a year*.

Luxury brands in the past have been associated with questionable environmental practices but one company proving that luxury items can also be sound green purchases is www.cocoonu.com – the new source for the highest quality cashmere products, made from 100% cashmere from Outer Mongolia.

The raw fibres for CocoonU products are supplied by nomadic goat herders in Outer Mongolia where the extreme winter climate makes for a longer and finer hair than from other sources. By combing rather than shearing the animals the yarn used by CocoonU is simply unbeatable for softness and durability.

The fibres are processed and items are manufactured to CocoonU designs in a co-operative factory in Mongolia – all resulting in superb quality materials and finished products.

Founder of CocoonU Vanessa Streeton, comments, “Supporting this centuries old way of life is a hugely satisfying aspect of the business given that much of the High Street cashmere on sale in the UK is sourced from huge operations in China. This not only fails to deliver the high quality of CocoonU cashmere, but also introduces an ethical trading dilemma for buyers.

“As the price of cashmere on the high street plummets and consumers bag a bargain we do have to ask the question, what price is the environment paying? By sourcing from Nomadic herders from a Buddhist democracy we have avoided having to deal with unethical or inhumane working practices across the border in China.”

“Not only do our products bring the buyer the absolute best quality cashmere but they will outlast mass-produced high street items. I believe that investing in quality is a great fight-back against the throw-away mentality. Consumers seeking the most luxurious product can still have a positive ethical and environmental impact with a CocoonU purchase.”

CocoonU’s commitment to the environment also extends to its packaging. Instead of using fancy but ultimately pointless packaging all CocoonU products are delivered to customers in cotton drawstring bags. This not only saves on waste but also optimises storage for the lifetime of the product.

CocoonU offers a range of products from interiors to fashion – shawls and throws to socks and jumpers for both men and women.
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Notes To Editors

Outer Mongolia & Cashmere

Outer Mongolia is the world’s second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan. Its capital and largest city is Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar).

At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Outer Mongolia is the nineteenth largest, and the least densely populated independent country in the world. The country contains very little arable land as much of its area is covered by arid and unproductive steppes with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately thirty percent of the country’s 2.8 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic. The predominant religion in Outer Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state’s citizens are of the Mongol ethnicity, though Buriats, Kazakhs and Tuvans also live in the country, especially in the west. About 38% of the population lives in Ulan Bator.

The Mongolian heartland consists of relatively flat steppes. The southern portion of the country is taken up by the Gobi Desert, while the northern and western portions are mountainous. The highest point in Outer Mongolia is the Khuiten in the Tavan bogd massif in the far west at 4,374 m (14,350 feet). The basin of the lake Uvs Nuur, shared with Tuva Republic in Russia, is a natural World Heritage Site.

Most of the country is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, with January averages dropping as low as -30°C (-22°F). The country is also subject to occasional harsh climatic conditions known as zud. Ulaanbaatar has the coldest average temperature of any national capital in the world.

Landscape
Outer Mongolia is high, cold, and windy. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most of its annual precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the centre of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in the north (average of 20 to 35 centimetres per year) and lowest in the south, which receives 10 to 20 centimetres annually. The extreme south is the Gobi, some regions of which receive no precipitation at all in most years.
The name “Gobi” is a Mongol term for a desert steppe, which usually refers to a category of arid rangeland with insufficient vegetation to support marmots but with enough to support camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape. Gobi rangelands are fragile and are easily destroyed by overgrazing, which results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even Bactrian camels can survive.

Cashmere is characterized by its luxuriously soft fibres. In order for a natural goat fibre to be considered Cashmere, it must be under 18.5 micrometers in diameter and be at least 3.175 centimetres long. It is noted as providing natural light-weight insulation without bulk. Fibres are highly adaptable and are easily constructed into fine or thick yarns, and light to heavy-weight fabrics.

The fibres used by CocoonU are 14-15.5 microns thick and up to 5cm long – this makes them exceptionally soft and also less prone to pilling than shorter thicker fibres.

Cashmere is appropriate for all climates; high moisture content allows insulation properties to change with the relative humidity in the air. It is a misconception that the finest fibres are harvested from the neck and belly of the goat as these are generally the dirtiest part of the animal and most subject to collecting debris. The finest fibres are gathered from the saddle of the Cashmere goat; most of the cashmere comes off of the sides and back of the goat’s body from the shoulder to the rump. If the goat is shorn, the fibre must be “de-haired” to remove the coarse, unusable guard hair. Sometimes the fine fibres are collected by combing the goat; either method is time consuming and tedious, thus the high cost of cashmere.