Off the Cuff - Carson Kressley [25]
Sweaters are all about the fiber of which they are constructed. When you buy a sweater, you should really consider the climate in which you live and how much use you’re going to get out of it. There’s no color-coded fiber chart of the U.S., like they have for flower bulbs, but I think you can figure it out. If you live in Hawaii, you’re not going to get much use out of those bulky fisherman knits, and linen roll-necks won’t be that helpful during Michigan winters.
Guys know what cotton and polyester are, but you don’t know yarns, so here’s a little cheat sheet.
Cashmere
What’s all the fuss about cashmere? It’s as expensive as cosmetic surgery. Wait, let me think of a good straight guy analogy. Cashmere is the flat screen TV of yarns. It’s the Super Bowl of sweaters.
Cashmere comes from a goat, imagine that. Specifically, it’s from the soft belly hair of a goat from the Kashmir region of India. It’s expensive because it takes forever for our goat friends to grow enough hair to make one sweater. It’s a luxury because it’s super warm and cuddly. Cashmere is cute cubed—cute, cute, cute!
But alas, all cashmere is not created equal. Just like beef, where you have prime, choice, and grade A, there are different quality levels of fibers. Some manufacturers use a very low-grade cashmere, so you really have to feel the quality and comparison shop a little. It’s all right, cop a good feel. This is one place where you won’t get sued if you touch.
How to Make Friends with Cashmere
Ordinarily, a decent cashmere sweater will run you between $150 and $400. I don’t want you to have to take out a second mortgage to afford one, so here’s a useful tip. Head to a department store in the few days after Christmas. You can often still find a very good selection at deeply reduced prices—often as much as 50 percent off. And once you bring your little cashmere friend home, don’t neglect its needs. You might think it best to send your cashmere to a professional dry cleaner, but you need to resist that urge. Dry-cleaning strips cashmere of the essential natural oils that make it so soft and cuddly. Just wash it yourself with a capful of Woolite and lay it flat to dry.
Merino
This is the poor man’s cashmere, a very popular and less costly alternative. Merino is actually a very high-quality, luxurious wool that comes from the merino sheep of New Zealand. They’re a little bit dressier than other wool sweaters, they’re a little bit cooler, and a nice alternative to the more expensive fibers. Think of your merino sweaters as baby steps on the glorious road to cashmere.
Lambswool
Lambswool falls in the same category as merino—it’s more lightweight than regular wool and generally a little finer quality and more dressed up. Because it comes from baby sheep, the fibers are younger and softer.
Wool
You probably already know that wool comes from our little sheep friends. Natural fibers are always better because when woven into a sweater, they do exactly what the fiber intended to do in nature: keep the animal warm and wick away moisture. And they’ll do the same for you, tiger.
When you take care of your wool sweaters, remember the wool was once a living thing. So when you’re storing it, it needs room to breathe. It can’t be suffocated or overheated, and needs to be cared for properly. It’s kind of like your hair, which is essentially dead on the top of your head, but it’s still an organic material. Of course, some of us have hair that is more dead than others’. And you know who you are.
Cotton
Cotton sweaters are great, especially for those gentle readers who live in warmer states like Texas, California, and Florida. They’re a good alternative because they provide warmth but are not super, super warm like cashmere or wool.
The care and laundering of cotton sweaters can be a bit tricky. Because they’re cotton, they have a lot of flex to the fiber and can stretch out very easily. Much like your mother’s breasts, gravity is not your cotton sweaters’ friend.