Upgrade your wardrobe with an impossibly light, perfectly warm cashmere sweater
Wine and cashmere make unlikely bedfellows, but they share a narrative of surprising intimacy. Just as you evaluate wine based on where it’s grown, the variety of grape, and the technique of the château, so you judge cashmere by its terroir, the quality of its fibers, and its manufacturers’ methods. The best cashmere comes from capra hircus goats, which roam Inner Mongolia, where freezing nights and scorching days force them to grow an under layer of exceptionally long, fine, soft fibers. Specialty producers own their own herds and carefully de-hair the goats to remove coarse strands from the fine under layer. “About 30 percent of cashmere is fraudulently labeled,” says watchdog Karl Spilhaus, of the Boston-based Camel Hair and Cashmere Institute of America. “To test the quality of a sweater, put one hand inside and the other outside, and rub it for 10 seconds. The good stuff won’t pill.”
FINE White + Warren Classic V-Neck, $265 Some cashmere sweaters look fuddy-duddy. Not this one. The New York–based cashmere maestro applies a modern aesthetic and eco-sensitive sensibility to its garments. Its V-neck sweater features exposed seams and ribbed cuffs, and is woven from fibers with diameters of 14.8 to 15.2 microns and a length of 34 to 36 millimeters. Long, fine fibers improve the garment’s drape, allow it to hold its shape, and reduce the likelihood of pilling. whiteandwarren.com
FINER Malo Filo crewneck, $700Woven on a loom that uses 22 needles every two and a half centimeters, Malo’s Filo crewneck weighs less than a T-shirt, yet wraps you in a layer of unexpected warmth. Despite its light weight, cashmere, like heavier wool, has thermoregulatory properties, so it retains heat when the body is cold and releases heat when it is hot. The Italian company, founded in 1972, uses 13.5-micron, 38-millimeter fibers from Inner Mongolia, and crafts its sweaters at its headquarters in Florence. malo.it
FINEST Loro Piana Baby-Cashmere crewneck, $1,200 Nomadic herders comb the under fleece of 19 goat kids (the harmless process happens only once between the ages of 3 and 12 months) to produce enough dandelion-light down for just one Loro Piana cable-knit sweater. The Italy-based manufacturer has woven cashmere since 1924 at its mill outside Milan and owns herds of white hircus goats in Inner Mongolia. This year, Loro Piana introduced baby cashmere, which is made from 13-micron, 44-millimeter fibers. The result is an ethereal sweater that floats on your body. loropiana.com
FINE
White + Warren Classic V-Neck, $265 Some cashmere sweaters look fuddy-duddy. Not this one. The New York–based cashmere maestro applies a modern aesthetic and eco-sensitive sensibility to its garments. Its V-neck sweater features exposed seams and ribbed cuffs, and is woven from fibers with diameters of 14.8 to 15.2 microns and a length of 34 to 36 millimeters. Long, fine fibers improve the garment’s drape, allow it to hold its shape, and reduce the likelihood of pilling. whiteandwarren.com
