There is something more luxurious than PASHMINA

There is something more luxurious than pashmina--but it's illegal. It's called shahtoosh, and it comes from the chiru, an endangered wild Tibetan antelope. To clip its hair, hunters there kill the animal. Its wool is said to be even softer than pashmina. A pure shahtoosh wrap is sometimes called a ring pashmina shawl because it is very much delicate that a whole shawl can be easily slipped through a gold ring. Pashmina, in comparison, is so fine that a folded shawl can rest in the palm of one's hand. It's illegal to buy or sell shahtoosh under the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but there's a black market; a shahtoosh shawl starts at about $9,000. Which makes pashmina seem downright reasonable, even ecofriendly, by comparison.