Best Cashmere
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Neiman Marcus' cashmere source is Christopher Fischer. I'm currently interning there and send their stuff to Saks and Henri Bendel as well. They have stores in NY. You should check out their website at www.christopherfischer.com
J Crew cashmere is also made by Loro Piana. I've never actually worn either, but I did see this article recently in WSJ: link. Loro Piana makes cashmere for several different brands.
Whats in a Wool? The Secret of Loro Piana
Italian Textile Maker Sells to the Finest Designersand, Quietly, to J. Crew
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Operating out of the village of Quarona at the foot of the Italian Alps, the Loro Piana family has been wholesaling textiles for six generations. Famed for its meticulous grading of wools, Loro Piana sells its fabric to high-end manufacturers, tailors and couturiers such as Brioni, Brooks Brothers and Maggie Norrismakers who sell suits for $10,000 and are permitted to sew Loro Pianas scripted label onto their garments.
The $1,750 Loro Piana cardigan was made in the companys Italian factories.
As long as they sell the finished product for a high enough price, they can use our name, said company co-chairman Pier Luigi Loro Piana over lunch and an Australian sauvignon blanc at the Modern in New York. They cannot be too cheap because our fabric is always at the top of the line. The cost of Loro Pianas own line of conservatively cut clothesa sweater can cost well over $1,000reflects the luxury-at-all-costs approach of Mr. Loro Piana and his brother Sergio, who seek out rare wool, cashmere and silk fibers from Australia to the Himalayas.
But consider the online description of another sweater, a cashmere V-neck cardigan that is spun from supersoft, luxurious Italian cashmere from a world-famous mill in the foothills of Piedmont. The peddler: catalog purveyor J. Crew. The price: $145. J. Crews Web site also notes that for a $298 cardigan, We used the very finest cashmeredirect from a storied mill in Quarona.
With that cagey wording, J. Crew refers to an open secret in the textile industry: Loro Piana supplies not just Brioni but also Bloomingdales, as well as many other middle-market brands. Some use Loro Piana wool and fabrics openly and some under deepest coverforbidden by contract to associate their brands with Loro Pianas luxury image.
J. Crew, for instance, makes its cashmere sweatersincluding its Crew Cuts sweaters for childrenfrom Loro Piana yarn. But the company has contracts with the Italian manufacturer that require it to keep mum.
Which it does, sort of, by using everything but the companys name.
I told them, why dont they just put in the ZIP Code? says Pier Guerci, Loro Pianas president in the U.S., who has brought up the issue with J. Crews chairman and chief executive, Mickey Drexler. Mr. Guerci chortles wrylyMr. Drexler is a friend who recently let him use his home in the Hamptons. They could have a little map, with an arrow pointing to the factory.
Yet the back-and-forth begs a serious question for consumers: Is it worth paying for the Loro Piana name? What do you get from two different companies that use the same yarn?
The $298 J. Crew cardigan, at right, was made with Loro Piana yarn in a Chinese factory
J. Crew is a mass brand with broad middle-class appeal, but Mr. Drexler has been working to upgrade its clothes quality. Loro Piana was one of the first new producers he hired in an effort to switch to more luxurious textilespart of a turnaround he credits with attracting the brands highest-profile customer, Michelle *****. We focused our efforts on the best in the categories we were in, he says, referencing J. Crews Thomas Mason shirt fabrics among others. He declined to discuss his companys relationship with Loro Piana. Executives from Bloomingdales and Brioni also declined to discuss their relationship with the Italian company.
But a sweater is more than the wool its made of. At a time when virtually all Italian textile manufacturers are struggling with a global recession that has exacerbated competition, Loro Piana is trying to differentiate itself by playing up its image of quality and luxury.In its fabrics, it markets innovations such as lightweight wool threads twisted with linen and silk. Loro Piana-branded clothing and accessories now account for about 60% of the companys revenues, Mr. Loro Piana says.
Mr. Loro Piana speaks with pride of the companys vertical controlfrom Mongolian sheep-shearer to Manhattan cardigan. At Loro Piana factories, workers known as menders use tweezers to pick out small impurities from fabric. Only two flaws per 50-meter piece are allowed, below the industry standard of five flaws.
Anything you manufacture, you can control the quality, says Mr. Loro Piana, with a brief segue into how wool becomes one micron thinner, and therefore worthless, in a drought. If you dont control the manufacturing, you lose something.
But what is it that you lose? To get an idea, I made an informal comparison of a J. Crew sweater and one from the Loro Piana line.
Priced at $1,750a level at which one expects quite a bitthe gray-ribbed Loro Piana sweater was created at the companys factories near Quarona. Its tight knit creates a rich texture, and the detailssuch as working buttons at the cuffs, tightly woven elbows in a contrasting patter and finely finished, sturdy pocketssuggest lasting style without looking trendy. After we bunched up the sleeves, the knit held its shape, the wrinkles quickly falling away. Its also long enough to double as a dress. Cared for properly, it should last for years.
J. Crews white cardigan, priced at $298, was made from Loro Piana yarn that was shipped to a factory in China to be knitted according to J. Crews specifications. Its label makes the most of the yarns origins, saying Made in China of Italian Yarn. The sweater is more stylish in its 80s-influenced boyfriend-style design, but its so thin that its see-throughwhich may be intentional, given that its billed as 14-gauge featherweight wool. (A J. Crew spokeswoman declined to comment on my critique.)
Grosgrain trim inside the placket smartly stabilizes the big shell buttons, but it stops midway up the body, creating an ill-finished, flimsy look at the top. The arms remained wrinkled after being bunched up. Its fashionable, but not dressya wardrobe item that should last a year or two.
Whats in a Wool? The Secret of Loro Piana
Italian Textile Maker Sells to the Finest Designersand, Quietly, to J. Crew
By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Operating out of the village of Quarona at the foot of the Italian Alps, the Loro Piana family has been wholesaling textiles for six generations. Famed for its meticulous grading of wools, Loro Piana sells its fabric to high-end manufacturers, tailors and couturiers such as Brioni, Brooks Brothers and Maggie Norrismakers who sell suits for $10,000 and are permitted to sew Loro Pianas scripted label onto their garments.
The $1,750 Loro Piana cardigan was made in the companys Italian factories.
As long as they sell the finished product for a high enough price, they can use our name, said company co-chairman Pier Luigi Loro Piana over lunch and an Australian sauvignon blanc at the Modern in New York. They cannot be too cheap because our fabric is always at the top of the line. The cost of Loro Pianas own line of conservatively cut clothesa sweater can cost well over $1,000reflects the luxury-at-all-costs approach of Mr. Loro Piana and his brother Sergio, who seek out rare wool, cashmere and silk fibers from Australia to the Himalayas.
But consider the online description of another sweater, a cashmere V-neck cardigan that is spun from supersoft, luxurious Italian cashmere from a world-famous mill in the foothills of Piedmont. The peddler: catalog purveyor J. Crew. The price: $145. J. Crews Web site also notes that for a $298 cardigan, We used the very finest cashmeredirect from a storied mill in Quarona.
With that cagey wording, J. Crew refers to an open secret in the textile industry: Loro Piana supplies not just Brioni but also Bloomingdales, as well as many other middle-market brands. Some use Loro Piana wool and fabrics openly and some under deepest coverforbidden by contract to associate their brands with Loro Pianas luxury image.
J. Crew, for instance, makes its cashmere sweatersincluding its Crew Cuts sweaters for childrenfrom Loro Piana yarn. But the company has contracts with the Italian manufacturer that require it to keep mum.
Which it does, sort of, by using everything but the companys name.
I told them, why dont they just put in the ZIP Code? says Pier Guerci, Loro Pianas president in the U.S., who has brought up the issue with J. Crews chairman and chief executive, Mickey Drexler. Mr. Guerci chortles wrylyMr. Drexler is a friend who recently let him use his home in the Hamptons. They could have a little map, with an arrow pointing to the factory.
Yet the back-and-forth begs a serious question for consumers: Is it worth paying for the Loro Piana name? What do you get from two different companies that use the same yarn?
The $298 J. Crew cardigan, at right, was made with Loro Piana yarn in a Chinese factory
J. Crew is a mass brand with broad middle-class appeal, but Mr. Drexler has been working to upgrade its clothes quality. Loro Piana was one of the first new producers he hired in an effort to switch to more luxurious textilespart of a turnaround he credits with attracting the brands highest-profile customer, Michelle *****. We focused our efforts on the best in the categories we were in, he says, referencing J. Crews Thomas Mason shirt fabrics among others. He declined to discuss his companys relationship with Loro Piana. Executives from Bloomingdales and Brioni also declined to discuss their relationship with the Italian company.
But a sweater is more than the wool its made of. At a time when virtually all Italian textile manufacturers are struggling with a global recession that has exacerbated competition, Loro Piana is trying to differentiate itself by playing up its image of quality and luxury.In its fabrics, it markets innovations such as lightweight wool threads twisted with linen and silk. Loro Piana-branded clothing and accessories now account for about 60% of the companys revenues, Mr. Loro Piana says.
Mr. Loro Piana speaks with pride of the companys vertical controlfrom Mongolian sheep-shearer to Manhattan cardigan. At Loro Piana factories, workers known as menders use tweezers to pick out small impurities from fabric. Only two flaws per 50-meter piece are allowed, below the industry standard of five flaws.
Anything you manufacture, you can control the quality, says Mr. Loro Piana, with a brief segue into how wool becomes one micron thinner, and therefore worthless, in a drought. If you dont control the manufacturing, you lose something.
But what is it that you lose? To get an idea, I made an informal comparison of a J. Crew sweater and one from the Loro Piana line.
Priced at $1,750a level at which one expects quite a bitthe gray-ribbed Loro Piana sweater was created at the companys factories near Quarona. Its tight knit creates a rich texture, and the detailssuch as working buttons at the cuffs, tightly woven elbows in a contrasting patter and finely finished, sturdy pocketssuggest lasting style without looking trendy. After we bunched up the sleeves, the knit held its shape, the wrinkles quickly falling away. Its also long enough to double as a dress. Cared for properly, it should last for years.
J. Crews white cardigan, priced at $298, was made from Loro Piana yarn that was shipped to a factory in China to be knitted according to J. Crews specifications. Its label makes the most of the yarns origins, saying Made in China of Italian Yarn. The sweater is more stylish in its 80s-influenced boyfriend-style design, but its so thin that its see-throughwhich may be intentional, given that its billed as 14-gauge featherweight wool. (A J. Crew spokeswoman declined to comment on my critique.)
Grosgrain trim inside the placket smartly stabilizes the big shell buttons, but it stops midway up the body, creating an ill-finished, flimsy look at the top. The arms remained wrinkled after being bunched up. Its fashionable, but not dressya wardrobe item that should last a year or two.
i bought three tse sweaters last year (online) and i'm not at all impressed with the softness or quality. it's a cashmere sweater, but it doesn't outdo my j.crew stuff the way i thought it would.
loro piana stuff is pure heaven, but too pricey for me. i wear my cashmere daily in the winter and i've been told by shop owners and buyers that LP is pretty delicate.
loro piana stuff is pure heaven, but too pricey for me. i wear my cashmere daily in the winter and i've been told by shop owners and buyers that LP is pretty delicate.
Interesting thread!
I have a lot a cashmere sweaters from J Crew and a few from Bloomingdales and just yesterday I bought two from Macy's.
I have never tried Tse ...
I have a lot a cashmere sweaters from J Crew and a few from Bloomingdales and just yesterday I bought two from Macy's.
I have never tried Tse ...
I personally find J Crew's cashmere to be the worst I have ever purchased. Most of their pieces in recent years have been thin and pill horribly.
I agree that the L&T is nice and durable, if not particularly fashion forward and TSE is great.
I agree that the L&T is nice and durable, if not particularly fashion forward and TSE is great.
i haven't bought any j.crew cashmere in recent years because my old pieces have held up well. there's minimal pilling and i think this will be my fifth year to own most of them (i have four sweaters). i wear them regularly in the winter, though the first two years i didn't wear them as often because i lived in a warmer climate. last year's j.crew cashmere at the store felt the same as old navy's.
I just found a new brand called Casmari or something like that. It is like a cross between a blanket and a cashmere sweater. I don't think it is 100% cashmere but it is nice. Not sure how it holds up. I saw it at Saks and they didn't have very many pieces. The lady said only a few stores even had the pieces. But they were really pretty.
LOVE cashmere and I live in Florida! I have a black cashmere hoodie I wear almost everyday and actually bought it in Bloomingdales. It's made in China. From reading this thread I think I'll look for pieces made in Italy. Thanks for the insight everyone!