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100% cashmere, or not?

There seems to be a lot of fuss lately over goat hair. You can't get out of the mall these days without running into luxe cashmere gloves or scarves or sweaters. And sure, it's Tucson, but it's cool here too. At least for another two days or so. So it's time we had a talk about the beluga caviar of clothing - particularly since it's periodically cropping up at salmon-roe prices. Take Dillard's in the Tucson Mall. The week before Christmas we found 100 percent cashmere in sporty styles like hoodies and pullovers for $180. But a little farther down the aisle, another display showed mockneck, 100 percent cashmere sweaters for $59 - a great price, even if it's slightly less buttery-feeling than the higher-end version. Pat Ochoa, a retired registered nurse, was sifting through the $180 styles looking for a present for her adult daughter. "I wouldn't buy it for myself - I wear sweatshirts - but I put it on the kids," Ochoa said. "I'm willing to pay a little more for it for something like that." Realtor Dianetta Thomas owns three cashmere sweaters. "They're soft and they keep me warm," she said. Shopping last month, she started seeing surprisingly low prices crop up. "I'm happy about it," she said. "It just means you can buy even more." Tucsonan Shirley Yocum, darting through Dillard's, happened by a display of sweaters on the way to the perfume kiosks. "I don't know much about cashmere," she said, "but it was on TV the other day and they were explaining that if it's over $100, then it's probably cashmere, but if it's under that, you have to be really careful about what you're getting." What's a consumer to do? The December issue of Consumer Reports suggests the cashmere buyer must beware. For the article, senior project leader Pat Slaven looked at six different cashmere sweaters, $50 to $450, to find out if the bargains were a steal or a rip-off. Of the six, a magnified fiber analysis showed one of them, labeled "Pure Cashmere" for $45, was actually 10 percent wool. And those that really were all cashmere ranged in quality from those made with a single-ply yarn, to others with two-ply or even three-ply yarn, which presumably will hold up longer and better resist stretching. You might reason the thinner stuff would be lighter in the Tucson heat - but think about it. You probably don't even buy toilet paper in single ply. Slaven found two of the sweaters, priced just over $100, that she considered good bargains, made of a good-quality, two-ply yarn. The magazine tested cashmere four years ago and found some low-end sweaters weren't knit well and that wool was sneaking into the mix - which prompted the December 2004 follow-up. Now admittedly, you can't be expected to do this kind of sophisticated fiber analysis - particularly in the middle of a store's ladies department. "You have to look at it carefully and buy from a reputable dealer," Slaven suggested by phone from her office in Yonkers, N.Y. It helps to know what cashmere is in the first place. Cashmere is the fine, soft undercoat of Kashmir goats. With major suppliers in China, Mongolia and Tibet, the fiber is very soft, but also extremely warm: it protects those goats from cold mountain temperatures. In some countries, the goats are sheared. In China and Mongolia, the down is removed by hand with a coarse comb during molting season, when the goats shed their hair, according to the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute, an industry group in Massachusetts. It takes the fleece of more than two goats for a two-ply sweater, and up to six goats for a sports jacket, which is why cashmere remains relatively pricey compared to other fabrics. Karl Spilhaus, president of the institute, said those low prices now seen in department stores may not be here for good. Fiber prices plummeted because of a combination of a recession and the fact that Chinese manufacturers have entered the textile market aggressively. But if prices stay low, he said, farmers may kill more of their goats to choke off the supply and drive up prices. Spilhaus said he wouldn't pay less than $150 for a cashmere sweater, saying he doesn't think a sweater for $59 will have "that million-dollar look" that people expect from a luxury product. And the institute recently stepped up a campaign to let consumers know about increased contamination of the cashmere market with sheep wool. And what's the manufacturer's obligation to divulge that sheep's wool? If you're buying a blend, the label is supposed to tell you that, under the Wool Products Labeling Act administered by the Federal Trade Commission. The label should spell out the fiber content, country of origin and the name of the manufacturer, as well as how to clean the item. It's illegal to simply say "cashmere blend" without listing percentages. And the hang tag has to match the label - a coat with a blend reflected on the interior label can't have a visible, colorful hang tag boasting "Fine cashmere." Which brings us to pashmina, which fashionistas will recognize from "Sex and the City" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" jokes (she doesn't know what it is, but plans to casually slip it into conversation to sound more worldly.) Like Bridget, some consumers wouldn't know it from a tribe in Afghanistan. (Ahem, that would be Pashtun.) A big part of the murkiness problem is the word itself: It's not in the dictionary, and according to the Federal Trade Commission, it is not a term recognized by the Wool Act. The FTC maintains that there is no pashmina fiber separate and distinct from cashmere fiber, but manufacturers routinely use the term to describe a blend of cashmere and silk. A label is not supposed to say "100 percent pashmina." It is supposed to accurately disclose the mix, which is typically a 70-to-30 or 80-to-20 ratio of cashmere to silk, giving the item more durability. Regardless of the confusion, consumers will gladly muddle through for the cachet of cashmere. "It's like carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, in a sense," said Paula Taylor, owner of Pour Moi Boutique, 1865 E. River Road. "It does help you feel like you're wearing the height of luxury and fashion." Taylor said the return of vintage - cashmere sweater sets with pencil skirts, brooches, pearls - is helping fuel a slight uptick in the cashmere market. Taylor said price does matter - at least to a certain degree. "What could happen with the less expensive ones - don't get me wrong, they're fine - but the fibers do tend to ball more quickly and they're not as sturdy and they're not as soft." Here's a tip you might try to gauge the quality. If the sweater comes with repair thread, try to untwist it. If it doesn't unravel, that means you've got a single-ply thread. Susana B. Kopplin, owner of Maya Palace, has been selling pashmina for 20 years, but said it has really caught on the past four years, along with scarves and shawls and more recently, capelets, the new shoulder shrug. "They're warm, they're easy to wear and they're good for presents because you don't have to worry about sizes," Kopplin said. Rochelle Katzeff, owner of Rochelle K, has another explanation for cashmere's appeal. "I think that people like good things that last - and more and more people are becoming aware that cashmere is one of those good things that can last," said Katzeff. She can't wear wool, but cashmere? She wears it all day. "It doesn't itch. And it's easy to dress up or dress down." And as far as it lasting, she should know. She still has a cashmere sweater that her mother-in-law purchased in 1940. And since the vintage look is back, she gets to wear that one, too.