#004 - Know about your beloved cashmere
Italian knitwear label Falconeri
First off, what is it?
Cashmere is downy wool from the undercoat of goats. (You have at least two animals to thank for every sweater.) The goats don’t always live in Kashmir, the region that gave this material its name, but they’re often from nearby places like Tibet and Mongolia.
The deal with that massive price gap.
High-end designers justify their high-end prices by selecting the best-quality hair fibers, which, like most of the best things on earth, come in smaller batches. The resulting sweaters (often made in Italy and Scotland) fit better, last longer, and feel softer than the mass-produced stuff, which is often made in China.
Embrace its ritzy heritage
Wearing cashmere under a suit adds an
instant layer of class. It’s a simple, head-turning way to make your two-piece
into a three-piece. No matter how much you paid for the sweater,
you’ll feel at least two tax brackets richer.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it
Cashmere sweaters come in every color
imaginable, so choose one that pops (like, say, a V-neck in a bright
contrasting color) against a smart shirt-and-tie combo. Or try a cardigan,
slipped under your suit jacket and unbuttoned at the very top and bottom.
Two ways to wear it
Buy the thrifty stuff and dress it up, or go
top-shelf and wear it casually. Turtlenecks are bigger and chunkier right now,
which means the cashmere versions feel, well, cashmere-ier. All that plush
material will keep you toasty during chilly fall rituals like football games
and drunken hayrides. If you don’t need something so heavy, you can scale back
to a hoodie or a crewneck, both of which now come at every price
point. In the new world of cashmere, how your sweater looks and fits—and
even how much it costs—is up to you. So try a few different styles. And
most of all, wear the damn things. Cashmere is no longer
special-occasion-only.
- Written by Nick Marino @ GQ
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