Know your fibers
Cashmere
Cashmere is the undercoat of the cashmere goat, combed rather than shorn, and a single animal yields enough for roughly a third of a sweater in a year. That supply constraint is the entire reason for the price, and it is also why the cheap cashmere that flooded the market is a different product in practice if not in name.
It is around three times warmer than sheep’s wool at the same weight, and far softer, because the fiber is finer and has less crimp.
- Warmth
- About 3 times wool
- Grade worth paying for
- Under 16 microns
- Weakness
- Pills, snags
What separates $150 cashmere from $900 cashmere
- Fiber length. Long fibers, 36mm and up, stay twisted into the yarn. Short fibers work loose and become pills. The biggest difference, and never on the label.
- Micron count. Under 16 is the grade worth paying for. Coarser cashmere is still cashmere and still legally labelled as such.
- Ply. Two-ply and above holds shape. Single-ply is lighter and will not survive the same number of seasons.
- Grams. A substantial crewneck is 400g or more. Many sub-$200 sweaters are nearer 200g, which is where the saving actually comes from.
- Recycled cashmere is shredded from existing garments, which necessarily shortens the fiber. Softer in the shop, pills much faster.
Pull the knit gently and let go. Good cashmere springs back. Poor cashmere stays stretched.
The pilling question
All cashmere pills at first. Good cashmere sheds its short surface fibers over the first three or four wears and then stops. Poor cashmere pills continuously, because the pills are coming from the structure of the yarn rather than from its surface.
Care, which decides how long it lasts
- Hand wash cool with baby shampoo or a wool wash every three to four wears. Cashmere prefers washing to dry cleaning.
- Press water out against the side of the basin, never wring. Dry flat, reshaped by hand.
- De-pill with a cashmere comb, not a razor. A comb lifts the pill, a blade cuts healthy fiber.
- Rest it a day between wears so the fiber recovers.
- Store folded in a breathable bag with cedar. Never on a hanger, which pulls the shoulders out permanently.
The honest trade-offs
Pills, snags on jewellery and bag hardware, and needs genuine upkeep. The market is full of mislabelled and low-grade product, so price is one of the few reliable signals.