Cashmere Grades Explained: What A, B and C Really Tell You

Walk through almost any cashmere listing and you will meet the same three letters, with Grade A at the top, Grade B in the middle and Grade C at the bottom, and the implication that a recognised authority set those bands and polices them. That turns out not to be the case. The letters are trade shorthand, used differently by different sellers, and no published standard defines them. What does exist is a legal definition of cashmere itself, built on measurements rather than letters, and once you know those measurements you can read a label far more usefully than any grade will help you.

This guide covers what cashmere grades are meant to signal, what the actual rules say, and which numbers on a swing tag are worth your attention when you are choosing a jumper you expect to keep for a decade.

Quick Answer

Cashmere grades A, B and C are an informal trade convention, not a legal or published industry standard. No fibre body, standards organisation or regulator has set out what each letter means, so one seller's Grade A can differ from another's. The only formal definition of cashmere is a measured one: under the United States Wool Products Labeling Act and the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute definition, cashmere is the fine dehaired undercoat of the cashmere goat, with a mean fibre diameter capped at 19 microns, a coefficient of variation around that mean capped at 24%, and no more than 3% by weight of fibres coarser than 30 microns. Judge cashmere on fibre diameter, fibre length, ply, spinner and construction rather than on a letter.

What Cashmere Grades Are Supposed to Mean

Sellers use the letters to signal fineness and length. In the usual telling, Grade A cashmere is the finest and longest fibre, combed from the goat's undercoat and spun into yarn that resists pilling; Grade B is thicker and shorter; Grade C is coarser still, closer to guard hair than to down. Sellers sometimes attach micron figures to each band, and those figures vary from listing to listing.

The convention is not meaningless, because fineness and length genuinely do drive how a cashmere jumper feels and how quickly it pills. The difficulty is that the letters carry no shared definition, so they cannot be checked, compared across brands, or disputed.

The Only Definition of Cashmere That Carries Weight

A legal definition exists in the United States, and the same wording is used by the trade body that represents cashmere processors internationally. Under the Wool Products Labeling Act as amended, and in the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute definition, the fibre must be:

• the fine dehaired undercoat produced by a cashmere goat, Capra hircus laniger

• with an average diameter of 19 microns or less

• with a coefficient of variation around that mean of 24% or less

• containing no more than 3% by weight of fibres whose average diameters exceed 30 microns

Fibre that fails those thresholds has to be labelled wool. Notice what is absent: any mention of A, B or C. The definition sets one bar that material either clears or does not, and says nothing whatever about bands above it.

Standards bodies have looked at cashmere for a different purpose. ISO 17751-1:2023 and ISO 17751-2:2023 cover quantitative analysis of cashmere, wool and other speciality animal fibres in blends, a question of identification rather than quality. Even there the picture is untidy: SGS notes that published procedures for cashmere identification lack detail, and describes no grading system at all. A test certificate can therefore confirm what a garment is made of; it cannot confirm the garment is Grade A, because nobody has defined the term for a laboratory to test against.

The Sustainable Fibre Alliance, which works on cashmere production at the herding end, does mention that fibre is graded from A to C, and attaches the same purity rule to it. That is a body describing how the trade talks, not one publishing a grading standard.

How the Letters Are Usually Applied

Because no definition binds anyone, the table below sets out the convention as sellers generally use it, rather than anything you can hold a brand to.

Two points matter. First, the figures attached to Grade C often sit above the 19 micron ceiling, so what is being described may not qualify as cashmere at all. Second, a brand selling a single quality of yarn has no reason to publish a grade at all, which is why some of the better cashmere on the market carries no letter anywhere on the label. The same caution covers baby cashmere, royal, pure and inner Mongolian: each describes something the seller believes about its own material, and none is a threshold anybody tests against.

Fibre Diameter, the Number That Matters Most

Cashmere in the literature runs roughly 13 to 19 microns, according to McGregor's review of rare natural animal fibres for the Australian government's Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. Diameter governs how easily a fibre bends against skin, and one that bends readily registers as softness while a stiffer one registers as prickle.

It is also the figure most often claimed and least often evidenced, and a micron number carries weight only where the seller can say who measured it.

Fibre Length, Which Decides Pilling

Processed cashmere fibre runs about 20 to 50 mm in the same review, and the Sustainable Fibre Alliance gives staple lengths of roughly 28 to 42 mm. Length matters because short fibres work their way to the fabric surface under abrasion and ball up there.

Li and Zhou's study of pilling in cashmere knitted fabric found that fibre length, particularly fibres under 7.5 mm, drives the pilling rate, while yarn twist and fabric density made little difference across the range they tested. That is a useful corrective to a widespread claim: adding twist or ply is not, on this evidence, what stops a jumper pilling. Starting with long fibre is.

Nothing on a label states staple length, which is the honest limitation of buying by specification, though handling the garment tells you a good deal: fabric spun from short material gives up fibre under the palm almost immediately.

Ply and Gauge, or What the Yarn and the Machine Contribute

Ply describes how many strands are twisted together to form the yarn, and gauge describes how many needles per inch the knitting machine runs. Together they set the weight and the density of the fabric: a two ply yarn at a fine gauge gives a light jumper for layering under a jacket, while a heavier yarn at a coarser gauge gives the kind of warmth found in the men's heavyweight knitwear, which you can wear on its own in January. Ply is frequently presented as a quality ladder, with three sold as an upgrade on two, when it mostly describes thickness and therefore which season the garment suits.

The Spinner, a Name You Can Check

Spinners are named, traceable businesses with reputations attached, which makes a mill's name a firmer signal than any printed grade. A spinner selling into the knitwear trade for a century has more to lose from poor fibre than an anonymous supply chain does.

Paul James knits its cashmere from yarn spun by Todd & Duncan in Scotland, a mill established in 1867, and says so on the cashmere yarn guide and on the product pages themselves. Where a brand will not name the mill, that silence is itself information.

What the Label Must Legally Tell You

Most cashmere sold in Britain carries no grade at all, which is not a warning sign. Here is what the label has to tell you, and what it does not.

Fibre composition is regulated. Under UK textile labelling rules, a product must carry the name and percentage by weight of all its constituent fibres in descending order, on a label that is durable, legible, visible and securely attached. So "100% cashmere" on a swing tag is a regulated statement. "Grade A" is not regulated at all.

Care labelling, by contrast, is voluntary in the UK, worth knowing when only one of two garments carries washing symbols. Where symbols are present they follow ISO 3758, the care labelling code administered by GINETEX, running in a fixed order: washtub, triangle, square, iron, circle.

A Checklist for the Shop Floor

Here is a short sequence, in the order that catches the most problems fastest:

1. Read the composition statement first, and treat a blend percentage as the fact and any adjective as the marketing.

2. Look for a named spinner or a named mill instead of a letter.

3. Ask for the fabric weight in grams per square metre, so you know what season you are buying for.

4. Hold the fabric up to the light. Very open, thin knitting at a low price usually means less yarn, whatever the fibre.

5. Give the surface a gentle rub with your palm. Material that fuzzes immediately is short staple, and it will pill.

6. Check whether a repair route exists, because a jumper that can be mended is a different proposition.

Paul James makes its garments in its own Leicester factories rather than buying finished stock, and runs a knitwear repair service for pieces worn hard.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best cashmere grade?

There is no best grade, because no organisation publishes a grading standard that brands must follow. Sellers who use Grade A mean it as the top of their own range, and two Grade A jumpers from different sources can differ considerably. The measurements behind the reputation come from the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers Institute: a mean fibre diameter at or below 19 microns, a coefficient of variation at or below 24%, and a 3% ceiling by weight on fibres over 30 microns.

Is 2 ply or 3 ply cashmere better?

Neither is better; they suit different garments. Ply counts the strands twisted together in a yarn, so a three ply yarn is thicker than a two ply of the same fibre and makes a denser, warmer fabric, while two ply suits lighter knitting for layering under a jacket. Ply is often presented as the cure for pilling, and the fibre science does not support that. Li and Zhou found short fibre length, not twist or density, drove pilling in cashmere knitted fabric.

How can you tell if cashmere is high quality before buying?

Start with the composition label, which UK law requires to state fibre percentages by weight. Then look for specifics the seller can be held to: a named spinner, a stated fabric weight, a described knit construction. Handle the garment if you can, rub the surface gently and watch for fibres lifting straight away, and hold it to the light to judge how densely it is knitted. Fine, long staple in a densely knitted fabric feels dense rather than fluffy in the hand.

What is the most expensive type of cashmere?

The costliest material is the finest and longest fibre, combed in small quantities, and baby cashmere from young goats usually sits at the top for that reason. Yield explains most of the price: a kid produces roughly 30 grams per growing season while an adult gives over 110 grams, according to the Sustainable Fibre Alliance. Dehairing losses matter too, since only about a quarter of a raw fleece is usable down. None of those terms is legally defined, so cost is not proof of fineness.

Does a higher grade mean a jumper will not pill?

No garment made from a short staple animal fibre is pill free, and no brand can honestly promise one. The International Wool Textile Organisation notes that pilling happens in all fibres and comes from abrasion at the fabric surface. Longer material, a denser knit and gentler wear all reduce it, and a cashmere comb removes the pills that do form. Areas that rub, such as under a bag strap or at the sides of the body, will always fuzz first.

See the Range

Paul James knits cashmere in Leicester from Scottish spun yarn, alongside a 90% merino and 10% cashmere blend that behaves rather differently. The men's cashmere accessories show what the pure yarn becomes, and the men's merino cashmere jumpers show where the blend goes. To ask what a particular piece is spun from, contact the team.

Follow the care label on your own garment, since blends, weights and finishes differ from one piece to the next.