It is said by those who love good knitwear, and I suppose who have also been around long enough to know, that the best cashmere sweaters came by the way of Scotland prior to the 1990s. They never lost their shape or pilled, and they kept their whipped cream, puffy cloud goodness even after decades of hard wear. This is just what I’ve heard, of course. I was born in the late 1970s, and the softest thing I knew in the ‘80s was a stuffed light-brown koala bear with half closed eyes. He had sky blue t-shirt that said “World’s Greatest Friend,” which I wrote on him myself.

After the 1990s, the landscape of British knitwear manufacturing began to change. Beleaguered from years of struggling against Italian and Chinese competition, and failing to get government support, many companies were forced to close down or abandon their manufacturing standards. The story is quite similar to what happened with British eyewear manufacturing. Unlike in that industry, however, there are still a few high-quality British manufacturers left. These include John Laing, Hawick Cashmere, Thistle and Broom, and William Lockie. Hawick supplies the likes of Knize, Ben Silver, and Maus & Hoffman, while Lockie supplies knitwear to a number of storied Savile Row firms. Cashmere sweaters from these companies continue to be some of the coziest and hardest wearing around, and when they’re made into a timeless design – such as my favorite, the crewneck cable knit – they’ll genuinely last a lifetime. 

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