LE CASHMERE started with a young man traveling to Mongolia, meeting nomadic families and planting trees to combat desertification. Dongju (Brandon) Yu learned that, while cashmere is sold at very high prices, Mongolia's nomads, especially women, are not being justly paid for their labor. The fast fashion supply chain was also creating too much demand, resulting in harmful harvesting methods, the inhumane treatment of goats, and rapidly increasing desertification across Mongolia.
As he diligently looked for ways to solve the serious animal cruelty, environmental degradation, and unfair labor compensation issues the cashmere industry in Mongolia was facing, he came up with a simple structure that would allow him to ethically collect and manage cashmere raw materials himself and develop products with nomads, while nurturing the capabilities of local producers. Thus, the sustainable premium cashmere brand, LE CASHMERE, was founded.
Rather than just succeeding as a fashion brand, LE CASHMERE aims to establish ourselves as an ethical brand that provides an alternative to fast fashion with circularity at our core – a brand that stands for animals, nature, and our communities.
To prevent the goats from growing under stress in a limited fenced-in area or cage, the community we work with raises their goats in a fence-free pasture. They use rotational grazing throughout a 10-ha expanse of grassland, which makes their grass supply sustainable, an issue with the desertification in Mongolia.
76.9% of Mongolia's total land is undergoing desertification and degradation due to goats that pluck the roots of grass, which is why a portion of our profits go towards expanding the “LE CASHMERE Forest” to help mitigate the negative environmental impacts of desertification and climate change in Mongolia. So far, 6,600 trees have been planted!
When obtaining free-grown cashmere goat hair, only the hair that naturally falls out is carefully combed so as not to injure the goat. We ensure this by regularly training nomadic producers directly on how to gather goat hair.
In most cashmere supply chains in Mongolia, it is the middleman that profits the most. The price of the product rises because the middleman in charge of the distribution takes a large margin, while the nomads who raise the goats and produce the cashmere raw material receive very little profit. In order to prevent these unfair practices, LE CASHMERE eliminates the middlemen and pays the producers a fair amount directly.
Since our launch in 2014, we have been awarded the grand prize at the Asia Social Venture Contest, participated in Seoul Fashion Week, and started several other side ventures dedicated to strengthening research into sustainability and supply chains in Mongolia. We plan to build a renewable materials center that will break down collected clothes and leftover fabric into recycled materials, scheduled to start operating in 25 years. Learn more about us here and get in touch!
