Cashmere is considered a luxury material and the best of all-natural fibers. It offers many benefits, such as softness and warmth, while being lightweight. It is well worth the investment, and when cared for correctly, a cashmere piece can last a lifetime. When buying cashmere, you want to know that you are purchasing a high-quality item, but how can you tell?

What Determines Cashmere Quality? 

The most important factor in cashmere quality is the fineness and length of the fibers. Items made with fine long fibers pill less and maintain their shape better than lower-quality cashmere and will get better with each wash. Shorter fibers do provide softness and loft but increase the amount of pilling on the cashmere item.   

Whether an item is made from 100% cashmere or a blend with other fibers will affect the feel and price. A blend will combine cashmere with wool, silk, or synthetic fibers. These cheaper fibers lower the cost and blends are often made with lower-quality cashmere. Buying a blend means you’re compromising price for the things that make cashmere so sought after, its soft lightweight insulating properties.

Here are 6 tests you can do to determine the quality of your cashmere item.

1. Touch:

The surface of the cashmere sweater is 60-70 mm, and the wool is thinner than ordinary wool, with an average fineness of 14-16um, so it feels silky and comfortable to the touch. However, some cashmere sweaters in the mall are very slippery to the touch. After touching them, they still feel slippery when rubbed with fingers, which means that the clothes are sprinkled with talcum powder.

2. Catch:

The hair of wool has a medulla, which is solid, while the hair of a cashmere sweater is hollow without a medulla, so it is quite elastic. Grab it with your hand, it feels like a glutinous rice elastic board.

3. Put:

Grab a handful of cashmere and let it go. Because it is animal protein, the cashmere will immediately return to flatness and will not wrinkle.

4. According to:

Take the cashmere sweater and shine it on the bright spot to see the density of the cashmere sweater. The lines are clear and neat, and the light is not easy to see through. If the density is loose, the rules will appear chaotic and easy to transmit light. A good cashmere sweater not only requires good cashmere purity but also requires a certain amount. This is an important sign to judge cashmere sweaters.

5. Weigh:

Weigh the weight of the cashmere sweater. If the amount is too light, the amount may be compromised, and the manufacturing density is not enough. Those that are too heavy may have wool mixed in.

6. Burning:

When the cashmere sweater is burned, it not only emits the scorched smell of protein and flint but also burns slowly. The ash after burning is powdery and shatters when touched. When wool burns, it also has the smell of burnt protein and flint, but the fiber ash quickly shrinks into a ball due to the burning of the fiber.