Innovation in men’s style today is measured not in dollars or pounds sterling but in microns. A unit of measurement used to define the diameter of a single fibre (a human hair, for example), a micron is a thousandth of a millimetre. Human hairs average around 70 microns, but your new Ralph Lauren Purple Label or Brunello Cucinelli suit could be cut from cloth that’s many microns finer.
The race to refine natural fibres has become a form of luxury oneupmanship, a way for brands and consumers to signal discernment. “Like with fine dining and wellness, having taste in fine materials is a flex,” says Ana Andjelic, brand executive and author of The Sociology of Business newsletter. “It’s a status symbol to recognise and appreciate the finest cashmere or the smoothest linen.”
This season Zegna has introduced its new Vellus Aureum collection, a range of overcoats, suits and separates made from exceptionally fine wool. These cloths are made with painstakingly sourced Australian merino wool that measures on average 12 to 13 microns – significantly finer than most cashmere fibres and streaks ahead of English or European wools, which commonly measure around 30 microns. The collection’s name (Latin for “golden fleece”) alludes to Zegna’s Wool Trophy Awards, established in 1963, which offer up a “golden fleece” each year to the wool producer that delivers Zegna the finest possible raw material.
“With Vellus Aureum, we wanted to explore the full potential of the world’s finest wool – not only in terms of softness, but also durability, resilience, timelessness and beauty,” explains Zegna’s artistic director Alessandro Sartori. “This fibre, finer than baby cashmere, allows us to create garments that are both technically extraordinary and emotionally resonant.”
In May, Loro Piana hosted its 2024 Record Bale Award, another annual tradition. As with Zegna’s Wool Trophy Awards, the prize is given to the producers of exceptionally fine wool. This year, the winner was Australian farm Pyrenees Park, which produced a merino wool fibre measuring just 10.5 microns in diameter.
“A tangible way [for brands] to differentiate from one another is through their fabrics,” explains Andjelic. “Luxury consumers expect continual innovation in materials. They want cashmere to be even softer and even more washable, for wool to be finer, for cotton to last longer. This is craftsmanship as storytelling.”
Recently, Sunspel introduced a Sea Island cotton-cashmere knit: a lightweight, trans-seasonal fabric designed to bridge the gap between cotton and traditional winter knitwear. “Only 0.00002 per cent of the world’s cotton qualifies as Sea Island,” notes design director David Telfer. Elsewhere, Tod’s has launched its Pashmy Leather, taking exceptionally fine leathers and thinning down the skins to 0.5mm thick. The result is a unique material that retains its shape and structure, with an exceptionally light and silky handle. This winter, Pashmy Leather has been used to create a distinctive padded jacket.
Is there such a thing as too fine, though? On Savile Row, bespoke tailors often steer clients towards materials that are more robust, on the basis that they’ll withstand the many hours of handwork that goes into a suit’s construction. At Huntsman, head cutter and creative director Campbell Carey warns against choosing super-lightweight fabrics for their own sake.
“Ultra-fine cloths are heavily finished so they look fab, but often they’re woven in such a way that all the “luxury” is on the face,” he says. “You can tell a good cloth by looking at the back of it. If you go for a fabric that’s too fine, the rules of diminishing returns can kick in.”
Collaboration is the answer, says Carey. Last year, Huntsman collaborated with Loro Piana to create its 175th-anniversary cloth collection, which kept the tailor’s “big, bold checks, but used Loro Piana’s superfine wool, silk and cashmere blends to give it a softness and lightness that you wouldn’t normally expect of a tweed”. The house has also woven an unusual wool-cashmere tartan with a small Scottish weaver to challenge the notion that tartan is always “rough as guts”.
“It’s about what the right texture is for the garment that you’re working with, rather than it being about the number of microns,” adds Chris Gaffney, CEO of Johnstons of Elgin, which is known for its fine cashmere jumpers and crewnecks. “For us, there can be a 16.5-micron cashmere that might work really well to create a knit with body and real warmth.”
At London-based Cutler, founded by Tenzin French, each sweatshirt or trouser is made in England using close to one kilogram of Italian cashmere yarn. “Our Gemino crewneck is double-faced,” explains French. “They’re essentially two sweaters sewn together. You feel the weight before you even put it on.” And in Amsterdam, Extreme Cashmere’s latest release – a series of cashmere jackets, again made with double-faced fabrics – is an attempt to demonstrate that cashmere can be for more than knitwear. The jackets are woven rather than knitted for extra body, softness and warmth.
Alongside cashmere, Dunhill’s AW25 collection showcases undyed albino camelhair from an English mill that specialises in rare fibres, which is used to create a topcoat, blazer and sweater. The camelhair is woven in its natural form with no chemical dyeing process to homogenise the fibre. To create a seamless-looking fabric the fibres must be painstakingly blended from one specific shade of camelhair.
“It is rarely used and quite exclusive,” explains creative director Simon Holloway. “We’ve also translated quintessentially English patterns onto Super 140s, 160s, 170s, even 180s wools. These are refined tailoring cloths that give a tremendous perception of lightness and performance.” Sometimes, it’s good to be a soft touch.
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