Maestria

The neck of Il Girocollo in Cream: the rib band linked to the body, the navy tipping inside it, the fashioning marks down the shoulder, and the house's label at the collar, numbered 001 of 250

Two-ply cashmere spun by Cariaggi at Nm 2/28, and extrafine merino at Nm 2/30, spun in Biella. Twelve gauge, fully fashioned, hand linked.

A cone of fine natural yarn standing on a mill floor, more cones behind it in the dark

Either yarn

The same three sweaters are knitted in either. The cashmere is the goat's winter undercoat, combed out by hand in the spring as the animal begins to shed it, which is work done a goat at a time and is most of why the fibre costs what it does. The merino is shorn, extrafine, and spun in Biella. Both are two ply and both are fine -- Nm 2/28 and Nm 2/30, which is fourteen and fifteen metres of yarn to the gram -- so a single sweater holds something near six kilometres of it. Cashmere is warmer for its weight and softer at the neck; merino holds its shape longer and takes harder wear. Neither is the better yarn. They are for different winters.

A fine-gauge knit in close-up, the stitches small enough to count

What fineness is

Fibre is measured across, in microns, and the whole of the difference between a good sweater and a great one is in that measurement. The finest fibre in the world is vicuna, at about twelve microns; cashmere runs between fourteen and nineteen. The numbers are small and what they do is not: a finer fibre can be spun thinner and laid closer, which is how a cloth comes to be light and warm at once instead of one at the cost of the other. In the range the house knits vicuna in one piece, La Sciarpa, which is made in it and in cashmere; the sweaters are cashmere or merino, and a piece in vicuna is knitted through Bespoke. It is still the yardstick the others are measured against, and a man spending this much on cashmere is owed the scale as well as the number.

Il Girocollo in cream, folded: the band and the body in one unbroken shade

One dye lot

One dye lot per colour per run. The collar, the body and the cuffs of a piece all come off the same lot, which is the only way the seams do not show as faint bars under a window or a lamp. It is also why a colour cannot be added to a run once it has been cast on, and why the house orders a whole run at once rather than dyeing to demand as the orders arrive. Two sweaters from two runs are the same colour. The same sweater from two lots would not be, and you would see it at the shoulder first.

The hem and the cuff of Il Dolcevita, each knitted to its shape

Fully fashioned

Each panel is knitted to its shape rather than cut from a wider sheet. A cut panel loses the loops along its edge and has to be oversewn to stop it running; a fashioned one keeps them, so the knit runs unbroken from the hem to the shoulder and the garment holds its shape through washing. The narrowing is done by moving stitches inward a few at a time, and every move leaves a small mark along the line of the seam. Those marks are the cheapest thing in the world to imitate and the hardest to fake, because they are not a finish. They are where the garment was shaped instead of trimmed.

The eye of a needle, a dark thread drawn through it

Hand linked

The collar, the shoulders and the side seams are joined loop by loop at a linking machine, one stitch to one point, by a person who puts them there. The join lies flat and carries no bulk, which is why the shoulder does not ridge under a jacket and the collar does not stand away from the neck. The alternative is an overlocked seam, which does the same work in a fraction of the time and leaves a cord you can find with a thumb through the cloth. Run a finger inside the collar of any sweater you own. You will know within a second which of the two you are wearing.

The armhole of Il Girocollo, and the navy tipping inside it

Three things to look for

Along the armhole, the small marks where the stitches were moved. Inside the collar, a flat row rather than a cord. Inside the neck label, the number. None of the three is decoration and all three are evidence: the first says the panel was shaped and not cut, the second says the seam was linked and not overlocked, the third says the piece was written into a book by hand before it was sent. Look for them on this one and then look for them on everything else in the drawer. That is the only argument this page is making.

Care & Repair