The Only Cashmere Buying Guide You Need

Cashmere pricing makes no sense from the outside. One crewneck is $50, another is $500, and both say “100% cashmere” on the label. The gap isn’t a scam, and it isn’t all branding. It comes down to four things the marketing rarely spells out: grade, ply, gauge, and how the yarn was finished.

Learn those four and you can walk into any price tier and know what you’re actually paying for. Here’s the whole thing in plain English.

Grade is about the fiber itself

Cashmere is graded A, B, or C based on the diameter and length of each fiber.

• Grade A is the good stuff. The fibers are long (around 34 to 36mm) and fine (roughly 14 to 15.5 microns). Long and fine means soft against the skin and far less prone to pilling.
• Grade B is thicker, somewhere around 19 microns.
• Grade C is the coarsest and shortest, the cheap filler grade that pills fast and feels scratchy.

A lower micron number is what your skin reads as “soft.” This is the single most useful spec to look for, and it’s also the one most brands hide. When a brand publishes its micron count, that’s a good sign. Quince lists Grade A at 15.8 microns. Everlane states Grade-A Mongolian cashmere. Plenty of $200 sweaters tell you nothing at all.

Ply is how many strands are twisted together

A “ply” is one strand of spun cashmere yarn. Two-ply means two strands twisted into one before knitting.

• Single-ply is lighter and thinner. Fine for a summer-weight or a layering piece, but it shows wear faster and can go see-through at the elbows.
• Two-ply is the workhorse. It’s denser, warmer, holds its shape, and lasts for years. Most sweaters worth keeping are two-ply.

More plies (4-ply, 6-ply) means a heavier, chunkier, pricier knit. That’s a preference, not a quality upgrade. A good 2-ply beats a cheap 6-ply every time.

Gauge is how tight the knit is

Gauge counts how many stitches fit in an inch of fabric. A high gauge (12-gauge) is a fine, smooth, almost flat knit. A low gauge (5 or 7-gauge) is chunky and visible. Neither is better. It’s about the look you want and the weight you’ll actually wear. Just know that a tight, even gauge with no gaps when you stretch it gently is a sign of careful knitting.

The finish is the last variable

Some premium knits are “boiled” or brushed after knitting. Boiling felts the surface slightly for a denser, lofted hand. That finishing work is part of why a Vince plush cashmere crew runs over $400 while a Quince crewneck runs about $50. Same fiber family, very different amount of labor in the yarn and the finishing.

How to check quality in 20 seconds

Whatever you’re holding, in a store or in your hands at home:

1. Stretch it gently. It should spring back, not stay stretched.
2. Hold it to the light. A dense two-ply knit shouldn’t be see-through.
3. Rub a small patch. Some surface fuzz is normal on new cashmere. A snowstorm of pills under light friction means short, low-grade fiber.
4. Read the label for grade and ply. Silence on both usually means there’s nothing to brag about.

So what should you actually buy?

For most people, the answer is a 2-ply Grade A crewneck in the $50 to $100 range. You don’t need to spend $400 to get genuinely soft, long-lasting cashmere. You just need to buy on grade and ply instead of on the price tag.

We put that to the test in the Quince vs. Naadam head-to-head, and rounded up the field by tier in the best affordable cashmere shortlist. Once you own one, washing it correctly and handling pilling is what makes it last a decade.