Cashwool by Zegna Baruffa: The Wool That Feels Like Cashmere
There is a paradox built into fine knitwear: the softest materials tend to be the least durable, and the most durable tend to lack the softness that makes them worth wearing. Cashmere sits at one extreme — extraordinary against the skin, but prone to pilling and wear within a season or two. Standard merino sits at the other: hardwearing, but rarely the first thing you reach for.
Cashwool resolves this paradox. It is a yarn developed by Zegna Baruffa — an Italian mill operating since 1817 — through a proprietary process that treats merino wool fibres at the microscopic level, stripping the outer scales that cause friction and pilling, leaving the fibre smooth, fine, and exceptionally soft.
What Zegna Baruffa Does Differently
Most wool processing focuses on fibre diameter and staple length. Cashwool processing goes further: the fibres are treated through a controlled process that reduces surface irregularity without compromising tensile strength. The result is a merino wool that reads against the skin as something closer to cashmere — without the inherent fragility of goat fibre.
Cashwool garments do not cause the mild irritation some people experience with standard wool. They hold their shape through washing in a way that cashmere rarely manages. And they resist pilling — the surface bobbles that make expensive knitwear look worn before it is.
Why ATELIER 23 Uses It
When building the knitwear line for the Lisbon collection, we needed a material that works across contexts: under a suit jacket on Avenida da Liberdade in January, equally in a restaurant in the evening. Soft enough to wear without a shirt beneath it, durable enough to travel, refined enough to sit alongside suits made from Loro Piana and Scabal fabric. Cashwool from Zegna Baruffa was the answer.
Our knitwear is produced at our workshop in Serra da Estrela, Portugal. The construction follows the same attention we bring to our tailored work: clean seams, even tension, no shortcuts at the finish.
How to Wear It
The round neck styles — in navy, grey, and beige — work equally as a mid-layer under a suit or as a standalone garment. The weight suits October through April in Lisbon. The zip sweater versions add utility: open, they function as a jacket layer; closed, they have the clean front line of a pullover.
A Cashwool sweater over a shirt, no jacket — this is the standard of the well-dressed man in Lisbon who has understood that formality is about proportion and fabric quality, not number of layers.
Care
Hand wash at 30°C with gentle detergent, or wool machine cycle. Reshape while damp, dry flat away from direct heat. Treated this way, a Cashwool sweater will be on your back in ten years, looking largely as it does today.
The Collection
Round neck sweaters (€350) and zip sweaters (€450) in navy, grey, beige, and ivory — available online and at our atelier on Avenida da Liberdade 110, Lisbon. The difference between reading about a fabric and feeling it in your hands is the whole point.