When the weather turns cold, I always feel that I am missing a piece of clothing in my closet. The warmth and comfort of cashmere sweaters has always been very good, but in the face of a variety of cashmere sweaters, there are many places that need attention to choose a suitable one.
Photo by Johnstons of Elgin on Unsplash
What is a cashmere sweater?
In autumn and winter, the types of knitwear are very rich, in addition to cashmere sweaters, there are also wool, camel down, yak wool, rabbit hair, etc. as the main raw materials for processing and weaving clothing, and even claim "imitation cashmere" and "cashmere", which makes people feel that they are looking at flowers in the fog.
FZ/T 73009-2021 "Cashmere Knitwear" stipulates that fine and coarsely combed pure cashmere knitwear and cashmere blended knitwear containing cashmere of 30% or more are subject to this standard. From the perspective of the scope of application of the standard, only when the cashmere content is not less than 30%, can it be evaluated by the standard of cashmere knitwear.
That is to say, the purchase of cashmere sweaters, only look at the name is not enough, but also pay special attention to the fiber content on the label, in addition to pure cashmere products, cashmere blend products, cashmere content to ≥ 30%, in order to be considered a real cashmere sweater.
Only goats produce cashmere l lorapiana
People used combs to collect the fluff layer of goats, and each sheep only had about a pound of fluff lLoro Piana
Cashmere sweater tips
Because the price of cashmere sweaters is generally higher, consumers have more confusion and doubts when purchasing, and the following misunderstandings should be avoided at this time:
Pilling is due to the fact that after the surface of the textile is rubbed, the yarn is exposed at the tip of the fiber, forming a hair-raising phenomenon.
Textiles of any raw material will have different degrees of pilling. Wool is easier to pill than cashmere due to its natural curls, but the tightness of the yarn itself, the structure of the fabric and even the way of wearing have a far more serious impact on the pilling than the fibre raw material. Therefore, cashmere sweaters will also pill, and it cannot be used to presume whether the raw material of the product is cashmere or not.
Some products will advertise "cashmere" knitwear, and the price is only half or even one-tenth of the cashmere sweater.
In fact, china's national standards do not have the fiber name of "cashmere", the so-called cashmere is only a part of the thinner fiber in the wool.
Although "cashmere" and "sheep wool" are all "sheep" characters, the essence is far from the same. What we usually call cashmere is the velvet fiber of the goat, and no matter how fine the sheep is, it can only be called sheep wool (or wool).
Microscopic structure of cashmere and wool
Shop tips
To select a high-quality cashmere sweater, consumers can make a preliminary judgment on the quality of the cashmere sweater through three messages on the product logo, combined with the feel and smell.
# Touch it #
When buying cashmere knitwear, the softness can be felt directly by touch.
Cashmere sweaters feel smooth and lightweight, and there is no "taut" feeling when worn on the body. The feel of the cardigan is fuller and thicker, and the silky cardigan feels smoother. However, it should be noted that some cardigans feel slippery because the cardigans add more softeners when they are post-processed, and there will be a slippery feeling after touching the hand.
# Smell it #
After the cashmere fiber is obtained from the cashmere goat, it must go through a series of spinning, weaving and dyeing process steps such as de-impurity, combing, strip making, yarn forming, weaving and dyeing.
credit: Documentary "Cashmere - The Source of the Secret Realm"
In the processing process, sometimes in order to facilitate weaving, or to facilitate consumer care, the manufacturing process will add lubrication or anti-pilling, anti-static additives. If you add too much, it will leave a peculiar smell on the clothes, some additives are not conducive to health and environmental protection, and some are easy to appear in the storage process of color stains, growth of borers and so on.
FZ/T73009-2021 "Cashmere Knitwear" for related products require the assessment of its dichloromethane soluble substances, if the content is too high, it means that there are more oil agents added during processing.
Although this indicator requires professional laboratory testing to obtain, consumers can also initially identify inferior products by smelling odors, because products with many oil agents often retain odors similar to motor oil.
# Look at the ingredient indicator #
Ingredients are the most important indicator of cashmere sweaters, and the cashmere content directly determines the cost of a cashmere sweater. GB/T 29862-2013 "Identification of Textile Fiber Content" clearly states that due to the morphological variation of cashmere fiber, cashmere will appear "suspected wool". Products with a cashmere content of 95% or more and suspected wool ≤ 5% can be labeled as "100% cashmere", "pure cashmere" or "whole cashmere". In other words, the amount of suspected wool in pure cashmere products must be ≤5%.
# Look at the security category #
Some consumers buy cashmere sweaters in order to pursue close-fitting comfort, and some consumers are accustomed to wearing cashmere sweaters (pants) on the outside of autumn clothes and autumn pants. GB 18401-2010 "National Textile Products Basic Safety Technical Specifications" divides textiles into three types according to end use: infant textile products, textile products that directly contact the skin, and textile products that are not in direct contact with the skin, which are represented by A, B and C respectively.
Consumers can choose the corresponding level of products according to their own wearing habits when purchasing. If you need to wear it closely, you should choose a product with a safety category of B, so that safety and comfort can be guaranteed.
# Look at the quality level #
FZ/T73009-2021 "Cashmere Knitwear" stipulates that the product grade can be divided into three kinds: excellent products, first-class products and qualified products.
In addition to some of the technical requirements higher than the first-class products, it is also specially proposed that for pure cashmere products, the average fineness of cashmere fibers should be ≤ 15.5μm, which plays a decisive role in improving the feel of cashmere sweaters.
Diameter comparison under different fiber microscopes
Therefore, consumers who have certain requirements for quality must pay attention to the quality level on the product logo when purchasing cashmere products. Premium cashmere sweaters are better than other grades of products in terms of fineness, easy pilling, and how much oil they contain, so their feel, wearing comfort and quality are better than other products.