Okay. I’m not one of those pretentious people who only eat organic, drink champagne, and brush their teeth every day.
I do, however, love cashmere.
I’ve slowly been cultivating a collection of sweaters, and have recently even invested in a pair of cashmere lounge pants. I don’t yet know how to wear them, in the sense of like do I have to stay in bed all day/do I need to re-upholster my chairs in baby skin/can the air be normal or should I order some new air from Goop etc. But…when I figure out how to do these pants justice, I will unfold them from their drawer, and try them on for the first time.
I do brush my teeth. I was kidding.
Anyway, I love the softness of cashmere, how nicely it fits, how throughout the day, it kinda gives you a shy hug like “is it okay that I’m still on you?” And how, instantly, you’re the Dom, and life is good. I’ve had a couple of coffees, and this How To Wash Your Cashmere post is getting weird - but the coffee was homemade, so see? Unpretentious.
Anyway, the thing with cashmere is that it’s DRY CLEAN ONLY and if you even mention washing it to anyone, they look at you like you’re about to paint a Ferrari with hot diarrhea. So, I don’t mention it anymore, and even if I did, I wouldn’t admit to talking about washing my sweater at a party. But here’s the thing: I’ve tried dry cleaning it. I took all of my cashmere sweaters to the dry cleaners in Dublin and not only was the dry cleaner man super rude, calling me “one of those” for cutting off the care instructions tag (which actually I didn’t! Which is even weirder because I bought the sweater new but without care tags and now I’m wondering if I bought a sweater that had previously been shoplifted but put back on the store shelf? Like is that a thing? Someone DM me).
So not only was he rude, but when I picked up my sweaters again, the sleeves had shrunk a bit and it smelled like an orphanage. I aired them out, conditioned them, and they were good as new, but having spent 100 Euros on them, I wasn’t about that life. Incidentally, I had also taken a cashmere-blend coat to the dry cleaners a few weeks prior, and it came back with its pockets filled with dry cleaner soap, which started out funny in a “haha no one on this bus knows I’m knuckle deep in toxic powder” but then became a bit annoying. So, all in all, my experience with professional cleaning has led me to the only thing I could think of: trying desperately never to sweat in any of my cashmere pieces.
Fast forward to a couple of years later. Here I am, inevitably having sweat on numerous occasions (I have raging anxiety), and needing to freshen up my cashmere sweaters once again. Well, this time, I would like to tell you that yes, you can wash your damn cashmere!
To do this, I first called my mom, because she is Russian, and in Russia, you do everything yourself. I asked her how she washes her cashmere, and she explained it so simply that honestly I feel like an idiot for ever following any other instructions. So here’s what you do:
You soak your cashmere sweater with a bit of shampoo, in lukewarm water. Soak it for about 30 minutes, then very gently squeeze the parts you think need freshening up, then very gently rinse in water of the SAME temperature - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - then squeeze gently to get as much of the water out. Keyword: gentle. Then, lay flat to dry over a towel to preserve their shape and absorb the remaining moisture from them.
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