J.Crew uses Loro Piana Wool But Manufactured in China

In an ongoing series if luxury products outdo mass manufacturing, The Wall Street Journal‘s Christina Binkley put two sweaters to the test both made of the same luxury wool created by luxury Italian company Loro Piana, but manufactured by two different companies, the other being the hot mass-consumer brand of the moment – J.Crew.

The name Loro Piana might not be very familiar to those who don’t read up on luxury brands. They aren’t as flashy as Louis Vuitton and Hermes, yet still holding true to old-fashioned luxury retailing mantra – to be discreet. Such is the case when WSJ’s Binkley went on an investigative hunt where it led to discovering J. Crew’s efforts in establishing “better quality products” by stating in their labels that their cashmere comes directly from “a storied mill in Quarona,” the same mill belonging to Loro Piana. The Italian company had quietly allowed J. Crew to use its yarn for mass manufacturing, although of course they would never say a peep of it outloud, yet I wonder how they allowed WSJ to announce so publicly their secretive operations.

While the Loro Piana brand, whose sweaters cost over $1700, it’s clear where those extra dollars have gone when touching it compared to J. Crew’s $298 cashmere sweater made in China. Though it is the same wool, confections of either sweaters are completely different. If you’re going to be shipping something to China, you can imagine how many cashmere sweaters they will to have to create, and who has time to make any intricate assembly in a land where volume is what brings home the bacon?

Naturally, Binkley concludes that the Loro Piana sweater outdoes the J. Crew sweater by a long shot, giving J. Crew’s sweater a 2yr shelf-life. Though Mickey Drexler, either by luck or pure genius, has helped two American brands establish themselves on the mid-consumer market (the other being The Gap), I wonder if he’s just riding on the Michelle Obama bump, and trying to cash in on her exposure of her love to J. Crew. I mean $300 for a sweater that won’t last a while doesn’t seem like smart investment to me.

Image credits: Loro Piana, J. Crew