Diplomatic moves bring rewards for cashmere maker

The company that supplied the specially designed scarves and shawls for leaders who participated in the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and their partners this week is hoping the high profile gained for its products will help boost China's cashmere industry.

Wang Zhen, the founder of 1436, a high-end cashmere brand owned by Erdos Fashion & Textile (Beijing) Co Ltd, said the wool used to make the specially designed shawls can quite rightly be called "treasures in cashmere".

The top-quality products made their debut at the welcoming banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping on Monday night.

"We have been carefully preparing them since we first received the orders in December 2013."

The 1436 brand made its international debut at a fashion show in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July 2013 where a broad collection of its men's and women's wear was presented.

The name itself comes from the key measurements the producer has to consider when picking the very best cashmere to use.

The wool selected to make its garments is from the shoulders and sides of Aerbasi goats when they are just a year old, because only at that age is the wool as thin as 14.5 micrometers and as long as 36 millimeters, explained Wang.

Every 500 kilograms of raw cashmere from the goats－reared on the Erdos grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region－can be used to make 1 kilogram of material.

In addition to the selection of the material, deciding on the best designs for the APEC meeting was a careful task.

Her team decided to use the basic colors of red and blue right from the start because they were appropriate for the APEC leaders' status and the expected cold weather at this time of year, she said.

The final design was not settled until September－a traditional pattern depicting sea and mountain, reflecting the close relations between the APEC economies which are themselves connected geographically by sea or over mountains.

Altogether the company weaved 120 scarves and shawls for the leaders and their partners.

"With the permission of the organizing committee we hope to develop more products featuring similar designs in the future, to give more people the chance to enjoy them," Wang said.

Business leaders confident about growth in APEC	Scenery of APEC venue Yanqi Lake in Huairou District