How often can cashmere be washed?
The frequency and intensity with which you wear your favorite piece will determine how often it should be washed. A good guideline is to wash it after about four wears. Until then, hanging the garment outside overnight to air it out is usually enough. A little Allude Refresher can also help freshen it up. However, remember that cashmere needs time to rest. Even if it's your favorite sweater, give it a 24-hour rest.

Dry cleaning
All cashmere items should never be dry cleaned. A normal wash with our cashmere detergent is perfect to remove most stains

Do I have to use a special detergent?
Treat your cashmere sweater like your own hair. I recommend liquid laundry detergent or a mild hair shampoo. In my opinion, normal delicate detergent is not gentle enough. It has an alkaline effect, removes grease and can cause holes. Color cleaners contain protein-soluble enzymes that attack fine hair. Special cashmere soaps are ideal. For Allude, I have developed a cashmere care range in cooperation with Speick Naturkosmetik that you can use for your favorite cashmere items. It is based on purely organic ingredients. The Allude Wash detergent not only washes the fabric, but also cares for cashmere hair in a particularly gentle way. At the same time, it is gentle on the skin and noticeably soft. A fine composition of essential oils has been added to Allude Wash to give the laundry a naturally light scent.

Zum Allude detergent


Softener
Fabric softener is not suitable for cashmere! The ingredients smooth out the surface structures and the clothing becomes baggy. If you want to do something good for your cashmere item, then use a commercially available hair treatment or our Allude Condition conditioner. It is added to the wash cycle after every tenth wash. This extra portion of care makes the sweater cuddly soft again.

By the way: A sweater that feels particularly soft doesn't necessarily have to be high quality. If it feels light and not too fluffy, you can assume that it was carefully made. It will then usually retain its wonderful quality for many years.

Zum Allude Conditioner


Smells
Contrary to popular belief, washing is not the only way to remove unpleasant odors from your clothes. Most odors can be minimized or even eliminated by airing your items overnight. Steaming offers another option, as the hot steam kills bacteria. After airing and steaming, you can finish off by spraying your clothes with a textile spray (Cashmere Refresher) and they will smell fresh again.

Make items fluffy again
A special tip from cashmere queen Andrea Karg: Put the damp sweater in a freezer bag and leave it in the freezer for one to two hours. Then leave it to dry lying down. Lightly steam flat-knit items with a steam iron (don't touch them, just hold them over the sweater!), then the hairs will stand up again.

Colors
To preserve the color of your clothes over time, it is advisable to sort your laundry by color. Dark clothes should be washed together with other dark items, colored ones with other colored ones, and white clothes separately. Although colors usually adhere very well to cashmere, it is better to play it safe and avoid any risk of color transfer.

Temperature
It is safe to wash your cashmere items at 30 degrees, but be careful not to exceed this temperature. Higher temperatures can cause the cashmere to mat. Unfortunately, once matted, cashmere cannot be returned to its original state.

Machine washes
Not only can you do that, you should do it. A machine wash on the wool cycle is better than any hand wash! The basics: Wash briefly in lukewarm water (never over 30 degrees!). Turn it over, fill the drum no more than halfway and spin it briefly at a low speed (600). The cashmere item may still be damp, but should no longer drip. If it is still dripping, please spin it again.

Hand wash
Any cashmere item can be hand or machine washed. Below you will find detailed instructions on how to do this.

Hand washing instructions

• Pre-treat stains and/or soak your clothes if necessary.
• Fill your sink with lukewarm water (max. 30 degrees.
• Place your garment inside and gently squeeze water and detergent through the fibers
• Let it rest for 15 minutes and repeat the light pressing to allow water and detergent to penetrate the fabric
• Drain the water and detergent and rinse the clothes with cold water
• Repeat this process
• Finally, rinse it with water until there is no detergent residue left.

Dry
There are many methods for drying clothes, but some are gentler than others and will help your clothes last longer. Below are three common drying techniques.

• Hang to dry: Please do not hang your cashmere to dry. The water and weight it still contains can cause the cashmere to lose its shape very easily. It is best to let it dry lying down.
• Lay out flat to dry: Cashmere prefers to be dried flat. This is the best way to preserve the shape of the item. Choose a flat surface, such as a clothes rack. Now lay the cashmere flat on the rack and leave it to dry. If you only have a table, place a terry towel under the cashmere to catch any excess water. Please make sure that you change the towel frequently to avoid waterlogging.
• Drying in the tumble dryer: Please do not put your cashmere items in the tumble dryer. If it is absolutely necessary, please dry them in the dryer on cold air. The fine scales of the wool hair get caught and stick together. The cashmere fabric shrinks and mats.