Drop Your Cold, Hard Cash on Some Warm, Soft Cashmere

The best sort of cashmere jumpers should feel as if a lot of cash has gone into them. That's because it probably has. The process of acquiring this warm, soft, very "ooooh, that's nice" wool is an arduous one. First, true cashmere is farmed from the Hircus Blythi goat, a very Satanic looking thing that's native to the Kashmir Valley and the surrounding areas in Nepal and Mongolia (Kashmir/cashmere, makes sense). Theirs is the fleece with a double hide: one is a soft, downy undercoat, the other is coarser, and meant to protect against the colder temperatures of the region. It takes a while to gather this. Longer still is the refining, spinning and production. The result? A lightweight, effective winterproof fabric, but one that costs a fair bit of money.

It's well worth the investment, though. Cashmere lasts. What's more, it's one of the few cold weather wools that insulates without the usual itch. And despite commanding a price tag that's probably a little above the usual cool clothes in your wardrobe, the democratisation of cashmere has begun. You can glean affordable cashmere for less that's just a peg below the usual luxury level (though there is plenty of that too). You want proof of this. Understandable. So, we pulled together the best cashmere jumpers and sweaters for men to upvote and insulate your 2022 rotation.