Loro Piana cashmere cardigan from Neiman Marcus

The interesting thing is that the article talked about how Loro Piana sells its fabric to high-end manufacturers such as Brioni and Brooks Brothers.  They use the fabric and can then put the Loro Piana label on them.  But, what nobody really knows is that they also sell their fabric to middle-end manufacturers as well.  Places like Bloomingdale’s also use them to make their in-store sweaters.
The biggest thing I learned is that J. Crew also buys their wool from there (remember – cashmere is a type of wool).  So, all of J. Crew’s sweaters are now made from the same wool as the sweaters made by Loro Piana!  Can you believe it?  J. Crew sweaters are about 20% of the price of Loro Piana sweaters.  J. Crew used to buy from a different manufacturer, but now is buying from Loro Piana because they want to increase the quality of their items and hopefully the price.  The good thing is that their prices can never even be in the same ballpark as Loro Piana since they cater to a much different market.  Therefore, if you are looking for a cashmere cardigan, you should definitely consider the cashmere from J. Crew.

J. Crew cashmere cardigan

The one downside was that the writer, Christina Binkley, compared 2 cashmere cardigans, one from Loro Piana and the other from J. Crew.  She found that the J. Crew one was a lot thinner and a lot more flimsy.  It seemed like the J. Crew sweater wouldn’t last half as long as the Loro Piana one.  So, even though the cashmere is purchased from the same place, when it is made into a sweater, J. Crew does not put as much effort or detail or even material into it as Loro Piana.   Also, I went to Neiman Marcus to look at a Loro Piana cashmere cardigan and it is definitely a lot thicker and more luxurious than ones from J. Crew.  However, it was also more than $5000 which equals more than 20 J. Crew sweaters.

Regardless of that, I still think it is a great deal.  I don’t know about you, but I definitely cannot afford a Loro Piana sweater.  However, I can buy a J. Crew sweater really easily.  So, this winter, when I am looking for my new cashmere cardigans, I will be looking at J. Crew for some great quality items.