When working as a webshop selling luxury wool, you very quickly encounter the problem that cashmere can be spelled in different ways. Officially, there are two variants used in Denmark, with c and with k. So when you use the c spelling, Google does not quite catch that there is also the other version and vice versa.
The confusion is also heightened by the fact that (in Denmark) there is an orchestra and a region spelled Kashmir. And the Kashmir region is actually what this is all about. You can see that when you search further in Google.
The origin
The material takes its name from the province of Kashmir in northern India, where the first historical accounts of the use of cashmere originate. It was in the province's old capital, Srinagar, at the foot of the Himalayas, which for centuries was a bustling trading town, that production of the shawls that would later become so famous, even in Europe, first began in earnest. Kashmir was an important point on the Silk Road and, unfortunately, both then and now (divided between India, China, and Pakistan), an area of conflict. Although the use of goat hair for both clothing and blankets had actually been common for a couple of thousand years, it was not until the 15th century, when nomads with herds of wild Changra goats came down from Tibet and Punjab with the wool they combed from the goats' bellies, that real cashmere production began. Srinagar also became the home of weaving thin shawls, a technique introduced from Persia, and combined with the new raw material, this led to the first cashmere shawls. However, the local raw material from the Changra goat was only used to a limited extent. As is still the case today, most of the raw cashmere comes from China and Mongolia.
A product for the upper class
At that time, shawls were used exclusively by the upper classes and the court, either as actual shawls, decorative scarves, or even turbans. When it later came to Europe, it was similarly the wealthy who used it. This happened at the end of the 18th century via the Silk Road, which brought it to Egypt, India, and Turkey, and from there to Europe. Well known is the story of Emperor Napoleon's first wife, Josephine, who reportedly owned 60 cashmere shawls, which constituted an unimaginable fortune. Napoleon encountered these shawls during the war in Egypt in the late 1700s. The officers of the Turkish army he was fighting wore these long shawls over their uniforms, and so the first cashmere shawls came to Europe as war souvenirs! From there, cashmere shawls took the world by storm. It is not known exactly when the spelling "cashmere" became common, but it is said that it is an old spelling for the province of Kashmir, and in this way it has become established and the circle is complete.