Cashmere Quality Grades: Fiber Length, Ply Count, and the A/B/C Decoder

Global cashmere supply is concentrated in a narrow geography. Inner Mongolia (Chinese side) and Mongolia together account for the majority of world raw fiber output, with smaller volumes from Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia. Inner Mongolian fiber is considered the benchmark for fineness because the cold continental climate produces a finer undercoat on the Capra hircus goats raised there. The best raw material is hand-combed from the goat's undercoat in spring, then dehaired to remove the coarse guard hairs that would otherwise feel prickly against skin.

The dehairing process is where grading really starts. After the guard hair is removed, the remaining down is sorted by length and color. Whites command a premium because they take pastel and bright dyes cleanly. Browns and grays are cheaper and are often piece-dyed dark. Fibers are then graded into broad quality tiers before they ever reach a spinner.

There is no single global standard for cashmere grading, but the A/B/C convention used across Chinese mills is consistent enough to be useful as a shorthand. Here is what each tier actually means in practice.

Grade A is what most premium brands believe they are buying when they spec "100% cashmere." Long staple length means fewer fiber ends sticking out of the yarn surface, which translates directly into less pilling and a smoother hand. Fineness under 15.5 microns is what gives cashmere its signature soft-against-the-neck feel; above 16 microns you start to detect a slight prickle, especially on next-to-skin styles.

Grade B is the workhorse of the industry. Most contemporary commercial cashmere programs at department-store price points run on B-grade fiber, often blended with a small percentage of A-grade fiber to lift the hand. There is nothing wrong with B-grade if it is priced and disclosed accurately. The problem is when B is sold as A.

Grade C and the even shorter "cashmere shorts" recovered from spinning waste are where things get murky. These fibers are too short to spin a strong worsted yarn on their own, so they are used in wovens, blended into woolen-spun yarns, or — and this is where the gray market lives — quietly added to a yarn marketed as 100% cashmere because the legal definition of cashmere is about fiber identity, not fiber length.

The label "100% cashmere" is a fiber-content claim. It is regulated under FTC textile rules in the US and analogous regulations in the EU, and it is enforceable through fiber analysis. But fiber analysis tells you the fiber is cashmere. It does not tell you whether it is 38mm Grade A combings or 22mm shorts pulled out of a spinner's waste bin. Both are technically cashmere.

This is how a few common practices stay legal but produce vastly different finished goods:

• Shorts blending. A spinner takes 70% B-grade longs and blends in 30% shorts from previous runs. The fiber content is still 100% cashmere. The yarn is weaker and the garment pills heavily after a few wears.
• Recycled or regenerated cashmere. Post-industrial cashmere waste is mechanically pulled back into fiber and re-spun. Lower cost, shorter staple, often blended with virgin to make the yarn spinnable. Legitimate for sustainability storytelling — but disclose it.
• Yak or wool blending undeclared. Less common at reputable mills, but cashmere with a few percent yak down or fine merino slipped in is hard to detect without lab testing and can drop raw-material cost meaningfully.
• Geographic substitution. Cheaper Afghan or Iranian fiber sold as Inner Mongolian. Hand feel differs; the label may not.

The defensive move is not paranoia. It is third-party fiber testing per shipment from a recognized lab (Intertek, SGS, Bureau Veritas), tested for both fiber content and average fiber diameter, with results referenced on the PO.

The "ply" of a cashmere yarn refers to how many individual single-end yarns are twisted together to make the finished yarn used at the knitting machine. This is one of the most misunderstood specs in cashmere buying.

• Single-ply (1/26Nm, 1/28Nm). One twisted strand. Lightest weight, drapes beautifully, used for ultra-fine 14gg-16gg crews and lightweight summer cashmere. Lower twist multiplier means it feels soft straight off the machine, but it has the least dimensional stability and pills faster because there is nothing to lock the fibers in place.
• 2-ply (2/26Nm, 2/28Nm). Two singles twisted together. The volume standard for fine and mid-gauge cashmere knitwear (12gg-14gg). Better stitch definition, better pilling resistance, holds its shape on the body. If you are repping a "premium" 12gg cashmere crew at department-store price, this is what should be running.
• Cabled 4-ply (2/2 construction). Two 2-ply yarns plied together. Used for chunkier 5gg-7gg constructions, heavy cardigans, and any garment where shape retention matters more than next-to-skin softness. More expensive per kilogram because more twisting steps and more yarn mass per garment.

A common cost trap: the buyer specs "12gg 2-ply 100% cashmere crew" and the supplier quotes against 1/13Nm single-ply doubled at the machine. The end product is technically two yarns at the feeder, but it is not a true 2-ply yarn. It will pill earlier and the surface will look fuzzier within a season. Write "2-ply twisted yarn (2/26Nm or 2/28Nm)" in the spec, not just "2-ply at knit."

Finished garment weight is the most underused quality signal in cashmere buying. Yarn count, ply and gauge together drive how much fiber actually ends up in the garment, and fiber is where the money is.

For a men's size M cashmere crew, rough industry benchmarks:

If a vendor offers you a 12gg "premium 100% cashmere crew" at 200g in a size M, ask why. The likely answers are thinner yarn count than specified, single-ply where 2-ply was specified, or shorts/blended content stretching the fiber. None of those are deal-breakers if priced honestly and labeled clearly. All of them are problems if you priced for 300g of long-staple 2-ply.

Weight is also the easiest spec to verify on incoming QC. Pull five garments randomly per size, weigh them, and reject the lot if the average falls more than 5% under spec.

The single biggest reason buyers get burned on cashmere is vague tech packs. "100% cashmere, 12gg, navy" leaves every quality lever in the supplier's hands. Here is what a defensible cashmere tech pack should include.

• Fiber content with grade reference: "100% cashmere, Grade A Inner Mongolian, minimum 36mm average fiber length, maximum 15.5 micron average fineness."
• Yarn construction: "2/26Nm 2-ply worsted-spun cashmere, S-twist over Z-twist, twist multiplier per mill standard for 12gg fine knit."
• Gauge and stitch: "12gg, plain jersey body, 1x1 rib neck/cuff/hem."
• Finished garment weight: "Size M target 300g +/- 15g."
• Finishing: "Wet-finished, light brushing, anti-pill treatment, steam-pressed."
• Testing: "Third-party fiber content and fiber diameter test per shipment, Martindale pilling minimum grade 3-4 after 2000 cycles, dimensional stability +/- 3% after one hand wash per care label."
• Country of fiber origin and country of spin disclosed on lot card.

This level of detail is not unreasonable to demand. Any spinner running real Grade A 2-ply cashmere will produce mill specs that map cleanly onto these requirements. A supplier that pushes back hard on documentation is telling you something about what is in the bag.

Cashmere yarn pricing moves with the spring combing season and currency. You will not get a stable number that works for a year. But you can build a sanity check using rough industry indicators.

At the time of writing, raw white dehaired Grade A Inner Mongolian cashmere fiber tends to trade in a range that puts finished 2-ply yarn somewhere in the upper double digits to low triple digits per kilogram USD at the spinner. B-grade equivalents run materially lower, and shorts-blended or recycled yarn lower again. A 12gg 2-ply crew that uses 350-400g of yarn for size M (including knitting waste) will carry meaningful raw-material cost before a single labor minute is added.

If a vendor quotes you a 100% cashmere crew at FOB pricing that does not leave room for that raw-material cost plus knitting, linking, finishing, trims, packaging and their margin, the answer is not that they have a magical supplier. The answer is somewhere in the fiber spec, and you should find it before the goods land.

Not every program needs to be 100% cashmere. Cashmere blends — typically with merino, silk, cotton or recycled cashmere — let brands hit a softer price point while delivering most of the hand-feel signal that customers associate with cashmere. A 70/30 merino-cashmere crew at 12gg gives you cashmere on the surface, wool's resilience underneath, and a landed cost the contemporary market can absorb. A 50/50 cashmere-silk blend gives you drape and luster for transitional pieces.

The rules are the same: spec the cashmere grade within the blend, spec the ply, spec the finished weight. Disclose the blend honestly on the care label. Customers who understand cashmere also understand blends, and a well-made 70/30 will out-perform a poorly-made 100% on the wear test every time.

Licheng works with cashmere and cashmere-blend yarns on a per-project basis, sourced through Inner Mongolian and Hebei spinners with documentation provided per shipment. We do not run an in-house cashmere spinning operation, and we will not pretend that 100% premium long-staple cashmere is a low-MOQ casual buy. For brands developing a real cashmere program, we are happy to walk through grade options, ply choices and weight targets against your price point before any sampling commits.

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If you're planning a real project around any of the points above, we'd be glad to take a quick look. Send a short brief and we'll come back within one business day with a practical direction, MOQ + lead time estimate, and a sample plan if it makes sense.

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