bLavish

Moxon Huddersfield’s $400 Socks Made From Rare Mongolian Cashmere

September 1, 2010 | Posted by bLavish as The Most Expensive at 4:25 pm | (2) Comments »

Moxon Huddersfield is one of the oldest textile houses in England. When I say old, I don’t mean the American idea of old, I mean pre-colonial. The house was established in 1556, and has been producing the highest quality, most expensive textiles ever since. The cloth produced by Moxon is extraordinary in a number of ways. They have continued to use time-tested methods of handcrafting for the past several centuries. While it takes a mass production facility only a few hours to produce cloth, the Moxon method takes 8 days!

And it isn’t just the method that is unique. The Moxon Altai Cashmere that their famous socks are made of comes only from Altai goats, who live in the mountains of Mongolia. These rare animals have softer fur than other goats because they live at such high altitudes, and their bodies need enormous amounts of fat to stay protected from the elements. This results in a cashmere that has one of the highest micron counts in the cashmere family, which is a scientific way of saying that it is really really soft.

So, then, what’s the price of a pair of socks woven from the fur of extremely rare goats and made with centuries-old techniques? Why, a mere $400! Dubbed the most expensive socks in the world by Wikipedia, the socks themselves are so rare that I can’t even find a picture of them. But unlike other woolen socks, these will not shrink after washing, and they won’t get holes, either. They will, however begin shedding after about a dozen washes. Perhaps if you collect each strand that they shed you could weave a $100 pair of socks? It’s just an idea.