Still, cashmere has become considerably more accessible and affordable in the past decade, a development that can be almost entirely attributed to China’s efforts to produce more of it. An increase in the sizes of goat herds grazing on the plains of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and parts of the Himalayan mountains, paired with an orchestrated surge in processing capacity, has resulted in an abundance of low-quality cashmere sweaters selling for as little as $40 at fast fashion retailers. Both China and Mongolia have recently lowered or limited cashmere goat herds and production output for economic and environmental reasons. High-quality long-fiber cashmere, however, remains scarce as heritage and luxury brands such as Italy’s Loro Piana, where you can easily spend thousands of dollars for a single cashmere sweater, buy up the majority of premium-grade cashmere. The yarn spun from shorter and broken cashmere filters down into the mass market, though sometimes higher-priced fashion brands use it, too, so you can’t rely on price as an indicator of quality.
