Leslie Deane Roth is a master of the soft sell.
Cashmere, to be precise. Many of the blankets, throws, pillow covers, scarves and other items she offers through Palm Desert-based Pur Cashmere LLC are made of fine cashmere fibers combed from Mongolian goats each spring after the animals endured hard winters.
Such culling is labor-intensive, so durable cashmere is expensive.
“Right now, people are very price-conscious,” Roth said. “People maybe can't afford to buy a new sofa, but they'll buy a throw, a new bedspread. It brightens up your life, but it's not that expensive.”
When the recession altered consumers' attitudes and prompted many to be more value-oriented, Roth helped design and create a blend of soft yarns. They're made from the heart of bamboo plants and cashmere fibers, have a similar look and feel of pure cashmere, but are less expensive.
Roth was able to engineer the yarns based on three decades of experience in the textile industry.
She started in Los Angeles, eventually becoming one of the first women to source textile materials for large companies in Asia. She worked with suppliers to import cashmere items from Mongolia even though most of them didn't speak English at the time.
In 2005, Roth decided to break out on her own. She surprised many in her family by launching Pur Cashmere with $10,000 she borrowed against equity in her Boston home.
She was confident in her vision for the company.
“It took off, and I haven't had to borrow money since,” Roth said.
“I figured either it will grow organically or I'll close shop.”
Roth moved to the desert this spring and bought a mid-century home in Palm Desert.
She has grandchildren in the San Deigo area and decided to establish her business at a warehouse suite on Joni Drive.
Pur Cashmere offers nearly 50 products billed as “refined luxury for modern lifestyles.”
Her core customers are mostly 25- to 45-year-olds from across America and beyond.
Pur Cashmere supplies several local specialty retailers, including Tuverson & Co., and Jolie Maison — both in Palm Desert.
“We just had a big buy from Amazon,” said Roth, noting online sales have been brisk at her website purcashmere.com.
Roth is planning a warehouse sale in March.
Finding inspiration
Although the small warehouse suite just off Cook Street has no company sign, Roth and three employees spend days filling customer orders.
They're surrounded by colorful stacks of shawls, wraps, driving blankets and other items.
There are honeysuckle and chocolate chiffon ribbons, plaid scarves of cocoa, gold and blue, crème ultrawool Jacquard throws.
Roth has designed many of the cashmere, bamboo and other blended items, which are made in Mongolia and shipped here.
Although the cashmere industry is comparatively small, the product has held up well despite difficulties in many key markets because it's viewed as high-quality, “extremely light, yet extraordinarily warm,” said Michael Duck, executive vice president with trade fair organizer UBM Asia Ltd., which put on the Cashmere World event in October in Beijing.
“The majority of cashmere comes from northern China,” Duck said.
Roth finds inspiration to design her products at museums and through art. She attended graduate school in Boston and studied architecture and museum studies.
Roth said Californians tend to embrace brighter colors.
“You go into somebody's house and say, ‘What would fit in here?' You think of colors.”
Roth works with Asian suppliers to create the colors and designs, often communicating late at night because of the time difference.
Nowadays, most younger Asian managers not only speak English but are business-savvy and understand American nuances, she said.
“They're very personable,” Roth said.
“I know their families, when they're getting married, their children. They're very hard-working and resourceful, and I have a lot of respect for them.”
By Mike Perrault
