Materials
·July 2026
·6 min read
Cashmere: Why Grade Matters More Than Brand
What separates Mongolian Grade-A cashmere from the cashmere sold everywhere else.
The word cashmere appears on garments priced from £35 to £3,000. Both use the same label. Neither is lying — both contain fibre from the Capra hircus goat, which is the technical definition of cashmere. The difference between them is grade, and grade determines everything: how the garment feels, how it performs, whether it pills within a month, and whether it is still wearable in ten years.
Understanding grade is the single most useful piece of knowledge for anyone buying knitwear at a serious price point. It is not complicated, but the fashion industry has no interest in teaching it — because the gap between grade A and the fibre used in most branded cashmere is embarrassing.
What grade means
Cashmere quality is primarily determined by two measurements: fibre diameter and fibre length. Diameter is measured in microns. Length is measured in millimetres. Grade A cashmere — the standard used by the best mills in Scotland, Italy, and Mongolia — is typically 14–15.5 microns in diameter and 36–38mm in length. These are not arbitrary figures. They are the point at which the fibre is fine enough to be genuinely soft against skin, and long enough to spin without producing the short, loose fibres that pill.
Grade B cashmere runs to about 19 microns — noticeably coarser, less soft, and more prone to pilling because the shorter fibres work their way out of the yarn with friction. Grade C, used in the cheapest cashmere products, is above 30 microns. It is technically cashmere. It does not feel like it.
Most cashmere sold at high street price points, and a significant proportion of what is sold at ostensibly premium price points under well-known brand names, is Grade B or lower. The brands do not disclose grade, because disclosure would immediately explain the price differential with mills that use Grade A.
Why Mongolian cashmere specifically
The best cashmere in the world comes from Inner Mongolia and the Mongolian plateau. The specific combination of altitude, extreme cold winters, and the particular grazing of goats at that elevation produces fibre that is finer and longer than cashmere sourced elsewhere. Chinese cashmere, which dominates the commodity market, is generally coarser. Scottish mills have historically sourced from Mongolia for this reason — the raw material is simply better.
NØRVIK sources Grade-A long-staple Mongolian cashmere from a single supplier — not because single-sourcing is a marketing position, but because consistent quality requires knowing exactly where the fibre comes from year to year. The same fibre, from the same source, through the same process, produces predictable results. Commodity sourcing — buying whatever grade is available at the lowest price — does not.
The pilling question
Pilling — the formation of small fibre balls on the surface of a knit — is the most common complaint about cashmere, and it is almost entirely a grade problem. Short fibres migrate to the surface of the yarn with friction and tangle into pills. Long-staple Grade-A fibre, spun correctly, does not have this problem at the same rate. It pills less in the first place and the pills it does form are easier to remove without damaging the fabric.
A cashmere jumper that pills heavily within the first month of wear is telling you something about the fibre used to make it. It is not a care failure. It is a sourcing failure.
What to look for when buying
Few brands publish their cashmere grade. The practical tests are: price relative to origin (genuinely Grade-A cashmere from a reputable mill cannot be produced cheaply); the feel of the knit (Grade-A cashmere has a specific softness and slight weight that lower grades do not replicate); and the brand's willingness to say where the fibre comes from.
Vague answers — "ethically sourced cashmere," "premium cashmere blend," "finest cashmere" — are not answers. An honest maker can tell you the grade, the source region, and ideally the mill. If they cannot, they are not using Grade A.
The difference in ownership experience between Grade-A and commodity cashmere is significant enough to make the price difference rational. A Grade-A cashmere piece, properly cared for, lasts ten to fifteen years and improves with washing as the fibres settle. A commodity cashmere piece pills within weeks and stretches out of shape within a year. Calculated per wear, the Grade-A piece is considerably cheaper.