1. With its alluring landscapes and nomadic culture, Mongolia is the epitome of the faraway, exotic place.
This exoticism is embodied in any garment, yarn or fibre bearing the Mongolian Noble Fibre insignia.
“Mongolia’s lost treasure.”
Damascus steel. Sea Island cotton.
Chinese silk. Mongolian Noble Fibre.
Modern-day Mongolia, once historically
referred to in the West as “Outer Mongolia”
to distinguish it from the mainland Chinese
province of Inner Mongolia, is the most
sparsely populated country in the world.
With wild steppes populated by nomadic
herders, it remains the epitome of the
faraway exotic place. Mongolia’s environ-
ment, cutlure and history are all the stuff of
legend—and for good reason.
The Mongol Empire (1206 –1368) is the
second-largest empire of all time (after the
British) as well as the largest contiguous
land empire in history, sprawling from the
Danube to the Sea of Japan, and from the
Arctic to Cambodia.
Yet far from being the barbarians history
portrays, Genghis Khan and his successors
(like Kublai Khan, immortalised by the poet
Coleridge) were responsible for connect-
ing Asia and Europe as never before, and
spreading religious tolerance, science and
technology amongst diverse civilisations.
Mongolian Noble Fibre: a lost treasure.
Long a major source for cashmere, yak and
camel, Mongolia is reviving an ensemble of
six natural shades of its most exotic fibres:
The creamy Shinejinst white, a greyish beige
Durvuljin “natural brown,” the Tsagaan Ovoo
light grey (a creamy beige that is arguably
Mongolia’s signature colour), the legendary
Baatsagaan “blue” and Bayandelger “red”
which are exclusive to Mongolia, and the
Khangai platinum yak (a superpremium fibre
one hundred times rarer than cashmere).

2. Californian luxury brand QuitMadStop created their fanciful “Mongolian beach towel”—a sheet of
flat-woven cashmere intended for use as a shawl or scarf—out of Mongolian Noble Fibre. The “towel”
is produced in Mongolia to the company’s specifications on niche Japanese-made midcentury looms
which impart a noticeably unique combination of loft and delicacy to the finished textile.
It can take as many as three goats to provide
enough cashmere to make one sweater.
No accurate portrait of Genghis Khan exists. All
images of him are artistic interpretations.
The Mongol Empire was the second-largest in world history (after the British). Stretching from the
Danube to the Sea of Japan, it spread ideas and innovations between East and West.
The authority of Mongol ambassadors invoked
“the strength of the Eternal Blue Sky.” Their
badge was worn on a cord or, like the Mongolian
Noble Fibre insignia, attached to clothing.
Rare and luxurious—and available only
in its natural pigmentation
Mongolian Noble Fibre comes exclusively in
the colours the animals themselves come
in. All yarns bearing the MNF certification
are unbleached, undyed and untainted.
Both the cashmere fibre and the yak down
are hand-combed off the animals’ under-
bellies in the early summer by Mongolian
nomads. These herdsmen, in unbroken line-
age with their ancestors, voluntarily follow a
3,000-year old free-roaming, pastoral lifestyle
assiduously attuned to natural environment
as spectacular as it is severe.
The premiere bounty of these Mongolian
nomads, these wizards of the wide-open
steppe, is some of the world’s most exotic
natural animal hair. The rarest and most
precious of their yield receives the coveted
Mongolian Noble Fibre designation.
To inquire about MNF or the Asian Develop-
ment Bank-funded initiative responsible for
it, write to Mr Erdenebileg, deputy project
director, at erdenebileg.b@ardp.mn.
Certified
Mongolian Noble Fibre