How to recognize good cashmere

Cashmere comes at 60 euros and at 600 euros, and both labels say “100% cashmere”. The difference isn’t in the label. It’s in the fiber, the yarn and the knit. Six things you can check — in the shop with your hands, at home after the first winter.

1. The fiber: long and fine

Everything starts with the raw material. Good cashmere is made of long, fine fibers — Grade-A, 14 to 16 microns. Long fibers can be twisted tightly and don’t slip out of the yarn. Short fibers do exactly that: they work loose, form little bobbles, and the piece loses its shape.

You can’t see fiber length. But you feel it after a few months — in whether a sweater still holds its shape. What Grade-A really means.

2. The yarn: single or two-ply

Fiber becomes a strand, two strands become a yarn. Two-ply means two strands are twisted around each other. The yarn gets denser and rounder, the knit holds its shape better and lasts longer. Single-ply yarn is lighter and cheaper — and thinner, so it gives way sooner.

It rarely says so on the label. You can tell from the knit: two-ply cashmere has substance between your fingers, single-ply feels thin and flat.

3. The knit: dense, not airy

Hold the piece up to the light. A good knit is even and dense, with no thin patches. Stretch it gently and let go — it should return to shape. If it stays stretched, the knit is too loose or the yarn too short.

The fineness of a knit is measured in gauge, the number of needles per inch. 12-gauge is fine and dense: light enough for indoors, warm enough for outside.

4. The handle: soft, with substance

Cashmere should be soft — but not soapy. If a piece in the shop feels unusually slick and slippery, it has often been helped along, with softeners or heavy brushing of the surface. That’s gone after the first wash, and what’s left is a thin knit.

Good cashmere does the opposite: new, it feels quiet and fine, and it grows softer with wearing and washing. After the first wash it feels different from new — and that is intended.

5. The color: even, without bleach

A good dye is even — no lighter patches, no clouding, no edges along the seams. And it does without bleach: if you want light colors, you start with light raw fiber instead of bleaching dark fiber. Bleaching makes the fiber brittle, and less chemistry on the fiber also means less that can irritate the skin.

6. Pilling: that it fades

All pure cashmere pills at first. That’s not a flaw, it’s physics: fine, short hairs work loose at points of friction. The difference shows afterwards. With good cashmere the pilling eases off noticeably after the first few wears, because the loose hairs are gone and the long ones stay. With short fibers it never stops.

A cashmere comb takes the bobbles off — here’s how.

And the price?

One goat yields around 150 grams of usable down a year. A sweater takes the fleece of several animals. The raw fiber alone has its price — a very cheap “100% cashmere” saves on fiber length, on the ply or on the density of the knit. Usually on all three.

Then again, expensive proves nothing. The price is a hint; the six points above are the test.

Origin

Good cashmere is traceable: from the herd to the spinning mill to the finished piece. Our yarn carries a code that lets you trace where it comes from. If there is no information on origin at all, that doesn’t prove poor quality — but it is a reason to look more closely.

In short

• Fiber: Grade-A, 14 to 16 microns, long
• Yarn: two-ply
• Knit: dense, returns to shape
• Handle: soft with substance, not soapy
• Color: even, without bleach
• Pilling: fades, doesn’t go on forever
• Origin: traceable