Éric Bompard

Éric Bompard was a technology-industry executive before he traveled to Asia and encountered the harvesting and weaving of cashmere firsthand. He founded his eponymous knitwear brand in 1984, opening its first boutique in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and undercut pricing that had until then been set largely by long-established Scottish cashmere houses. Rather than buying finished yarn on the open market, Bompard pushed to control more of the supply chain himself, working with capra hircus goats raised at altitudes above 3,000 meters on the Mongolian plateau, including the Gobi Desert region of Inner Mongolia, to source the fine undercoat fiber combed out each spring. He signed an exclusive supply arrangement with the Chinese cashmere processor Erdos, which later became an investor in the company. The brand today operates a boutique at 31 rue du Bac in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on a street already associated with the Bon Marché department store and higher-end small retail, and has expanded into a network of French and international boutiques while still emphasizing traceable Mongolian fiber and non-dyed yarn options as part of its identity.