The Provenance Gap

Cashmere is everywhere. Back in the day, it was a luxury afforded only by those who didn’t do their own laundry. Now it turns up in Tesco. But there’s a vast chasm of confusion between a F&F Premium Pure Cashmere High Neck Jumper, £69.95 and a Loro Piana Turtle Neck Jumper, £1350.00. They look pretty similar. The latter is nearly twenty times more expensive.

Shop anywhere, instore or online, and you’ll find cashmere that looks identical but varies vastly in cost. It’ll be called pure, premium, soft, warm, fine, even sustainable, but there’s no label for where it came from, who raised the goats, under what conditions and whether the grazing land is being protected for future generations.

This is the provenance gap, and it sits at the heart of one of fashion’s most high end materials.

Cashmere comes primarily from the super-soft undercoat of Capra hircus goats, gently combed by hand each spring during the brief moulting season. The finest fibre in the world comes from the high plateaux of Inner Mongolia, where extreme temperatures and hard-to-reach grazing produces a healthy goat with an extra layer of fine, soft fibre that cannot be replicated. I didn’t read this in a brochure. I went to have a look. I shared lunch with the herding families, followed their goats in the tall grasses (avoiding snakes en route), met the spinners and the knitters and the linkers. To have that much oversight of the supply chain is meaningful. So when I say premium or pure or sustainable, I actually mean it. But most other brands don’t.

“Most consumers assume that if something is labelled ‘pure’ or ‘premium’ cashmere, quality and ethics are implied. They are not. There are simply no guarantees that a supply chain is safe and kind, to animals, the land and the people involved. Even expensive brands have been caught out skipping the details to maximise profits.”