cashmere
It’s the year of cashmere—and luxury’s practical.
By Susan Caba
Photographs By Frank Di Piazza
There’s something luxurious and soft about early fall—the air settles lightly on the shoulders, a wrap both subtle and sensuous. Crisp days chase away the summer’s stupor, and I begin to feel alive again.
To me, cashmere is the perfect embodiment of the season, a fabric soft, light and warm, simple yet elegant. It smoothes the wardrobe transition between summer’s flimsy fabrics and the heft of winter woolens. And this year, it’s everywhere.
Add a cashmere cardigan and cowboy boots to last season’s flounced skirt, I’m told by fashion mavens, and you have this season’s country femininity. Or for those—me, for instance—who would resemble a country sack of potatoes in flounced anything with cowboy boots, a classic cashmere sweater brings a skirt or slacks up to business snuff for autumn. And for romance, what’s more touchable than cashmere?
As someone whose fallback fashion statement is a black cashmere sweater with whatever, I set out to see what else is available this year. The answer: virtually anything you want, from op-art throws at $1,450 to novelty scarves for $16. Every designer, from Juicy Couture to Isaac Mizrahi at Target, has something in cashmere. “Cashmere’s timeless chic and luxurious hand have always made it a must-have,” says Neiman Marcus vice president Ken Downing, adding that, this fall, embellished cashmeres are “the ultimate in opulent dressing—for day and night.”
Traditionally, cashmere was reserved for the rich. It was a fabric for classics—twinsets and pearls, Audrey Hepburn and, if she was lucky, the girl next door. No one else could afford a fiber combed from the throats and bellies of Kashmiri and Mongolian mountain goats in remote regions, transported through treacherous passes, sorted by hand and spun into the softest of yarns, so fine it takes four to six goats to produce enough for a sweater.
Today, those of us buying our cashmere at T.J. Maxx and Sears can thank globalization and technology for making it available to the masses. Mongolia isn’t as far away as it once was. If not all cashmere is created equal (combed fibers are longer than those shorn from the goats, and longer fibers equal higher quality), well, my motto is carpe cashmere at whatever price you can afford.
“Cashmere at a luxury level is for longevity,” Debbie Derrick at Saks Fifth Avenue tells me, adding that she has a sweater that looks as great now as it did when she bought it years ago. “Cashmere at a discount level is ‘buy now, wear now and throw away.’”
This month, SAKS (Plaza Frontenac, 314-567-9200) is in the midst of an “everything cashmere” promotion—even its shopping bags have been redesigned to feature a family of goats living at the top of the New York flagship store. The fiber is featured in every department, in more than 400 items (a cashmere-lined jewelry box, anyone?). Several vendors have designed items exclusively for Saks, such as the Burberry coat for $1,495. For chilly winter nights, there’s a retro throw in red, orange and yellow to keep you toasty ($1,450), with a matching pillow ($155). I may buy something (alas, not the coat) just to get one of the shopping bags.
At WOMEN’S CLOSET EXCHANGE (11557 Gravois, 314-842-8405), I tried on a lightly worn citron-green cable-knit cashmere sweater for $30. Unfortunately, my head of orange hair atop the sweater’s funnel neck created an impression more akin to buxom Christmas elf than chic sophisticate. And it’s impossible to predict what will be in stock on any given day. I cruise the racks by touch, seeking cashmere’s cloudlike softness.
In Chesterfield, SUSAN LYNN’S (130 Chesterfield Town Centre, 636-530-7337) has one-of-a-kind T-shirts by St. Louis’ own Rebecca Melander. The long-sleeved white shirts, $65, feature a cashmere heart, clipped from vintage garments and hand-stitched in place. The store also carries cashmere tote bags by My Flat in London for $700 and up.
LANDS’ END (www.landsend.com) is my choice for cashmere standards, such as the $129 V-neck pullovers, especially since their cashmere comes from the same firm that supplies far more expensive brands. The sweaters are made of two-ply yarn and assembled by hand to minimize bulk in the seams. They are available in women’s sizes as well as petites, and this year the company has added a deeper-neck, lighter-weight V-neck version, $98, for easier layering, as well as a camisole, $68. Sears now carries Lands’ End cashmere, though not in all styles or colors.
John Travolta reportedly required a new black cashmere Armani T-shirt every day of a movie shoot, which strikes me as the epitome of movie-star indulgence. I get a kick out of the fact that Sears—founded to sup- ply the needs of farmers and tradespeople—now sells clothes made of a fabric once reserved for royalty.
