Cashwool by Zegna Baruffa: The Wool That Feels Like Cashmere

At the atelier we put two sweaters on the table, one cashmere and one Cashwool, and ask whoever has come in to close their eyes and touch them. They rarely guess right. The difference shows up later, after three winters: by then the cashmere is asking to be treated carefully, and the Cashwool sweater looks the way it did on the day it was bought. That is why our knitwear is made from this yarn.

Cashwool is a registered yarn of the Zegna Baruffa Lane Borgosesia mill in Piedmont, half an hour from Biella, the capital of Italian wool. The mill has been spinning since 1850, and Cashwool is its principal invention: pure extrafine combed merino with a fibre of about 19.5 microns. For comparison, a human hair is three times thicker and cashmere starts at 15 microns. The word is made from cashmere and wool, and it is an honest description: wool that behaves like cashmere in the hand.

What fineness of fibre gives

Merino with a fibre under 20 microns does not prickle. It is physics: a fine fibre bends when it meets skin, a thick one pushes back, and it is that push we feel as a prickle. So a Cashwool sweater is worn against the skin, like a t-shirt, and a fine polo in the same yarn goes under a jacket in place of a shirt. A thick sweater over a shirt under a jacket turns the silhouette into a box; fine merino leaves the silhouette to the jacket.

The second property, known to anyone who has worked with this yarn: Cashwool holds its shape. Combed yarn is springy, the cloth returns to itself after wear and washing, the elbows do not bag and the neck stays a neck. Cashmere is built differently: the fibre is shorter and more delicate, which is precisely why people love it.

Cashwool in ATELIER 23 knitwear

We knit three garments in Cashwool: the crew-neck sweater, the long-sleeved polo and the zip polo with a high collar. Sweaters in navy, grey and beige; polos in grey, black and beige; zip polos in navy, grey and beige. All knitted to our own patterns, with firm ribbing at cuff and hem, and cut close to the body without surplus volume, exactly as a jacket is.

The rule we repeat at the moment of buying: the first is navy, crew neck. It goes under a jacket, under a coat and over a shirt, and with it the question of what to wear does not arise. The second is grey, the third is the zip polo: it replaces a jacket on a Friday and on a plane.

Care

Wash by hand or on a delicate cycle at 30 degrees with a mild wool detergent. Do not wring, dry flat on a horizontal surface, because a hanger stretches the shoulders of any knitwear. Press through a cloth on the wool setting if it is ever needed: dried properly, Cashwool barely creases. Store folded, and in summer with cedar or lavender.

Cashwool or cashmere

Cashmere remains cashmere: it has a warmth and a lightness nothing replaces, and we carry it too. Cashwool is chosen for other tasks: the sweater worn three times a week, the polo under a jacket, the zip polo for travelling. A Cashwool garment costs noticeably less than a cashmere one of the same quality and lasts longer. We consider it the best buy there is in knitwear, and in December, when sweaters are given as presents, we say so more often than at any other time.

Close your eyes and touch them. People rarely guess right.ATELIER 23

Questions before ordering

Cashwool in the catalogue: Round Neck Navy · Gray Polo · Navy Zip Sweater