Aritzia Babaton vs Quince cashmere: a $200 sweater showdown

june is the personal shopping service letsjune, inc. operates. some links here are commission-tracked. it never changes which sweater i'd actually pick — i'm wearing the green Babaton as i type this.

okay. the question i get more than almost any other right now: is the Aritzia Babaton cashmere crewneck actually worth $200 when Quince sells a "mongolian cashmere crewneck" for around $50? same fiber name on the label. four times the price. someone is either getting fleeced or getting away with something, and people want to know which.

i'll spoil the answer a little so you don't have to scroll: both sweaters are real cashmere, both are decent for what they cost, and neither one is a scam. they're built for two different people. if you wear a cashmere crewneck ten times a year, Quince. if you wear one twice a week from october through march, Babaton. the reason has very little to do with the country printed on the tag and everything to do with what's actually in the yarn.

the fiber spec

here's the thing nobody at the till tells you: "cashmere" on a label means the goat. it does not mean the grade. the same goat produces fibers of wildly different lengths depending on which part of the coat got combed, and fiber length is the variable that decides how your sweater ages. long-staple fibers (call it 36mm+) twist together tightly when spun and stay put. short-staple fibers work their way to the surface every time you move your arms. that's pilling. that's also why two sweaters from the same Inner Mongolian herd can feel like cousins, not twins.

two other words to know:

• ply. how many strands are twisted into one yarn. 1-ply is light and drapey, fine for layering under a blazer. 2-ply is denser and warmer, what you want for a sweater you'll wear alone in 40-degree weather. neither is "better" in a vacuum — they do different jobs.
• gauge. how tight the knit is. higher gauge = finer, sleeker, more like the sweater a magazine photographs. lower gauge = chunkier, cozier, and (counterintuitively) sometimes more durable.

short version: the goat is not the differentiator. the spinning, the ply, the gauge, and the finishing are.

Quince's pitch

Quince's whole model is "skip the middlemen, sell direct, pass the savings on." for cashmere this mostly works. the mongolian cashmere crewneck has a soft hand right out of the box, the drape is fine, the color range is wide and seasonally refreshed, and at $50 it's the cheapest real cashmere i've found that isn't a thrift-store gamble.

what i've seen after owning three of them:

• visible pilling around the underarms and side-seam by roughly wear 8–12. not catastrophic. a Gleener takes care of it, but you'll be doing it monthly.
• the hem warped slightly on my navy one after the second wash. i tumble-dried on no heat (my fault). lay-flat dry after this, please.
• the navy faded toward a cool gray after about six months of regular wear. the oatmeal and the camel held color better.

is it still worth $50? yes. for a starter cashmere, for color experimentation (try the chartreuse, you'll either love it or laugh), or for the around-the-house sweater you don't mind treating like a t-shirt — Quince is the right answer. just know what you bought. it's a $50 sweater. it is not a $50 sweater that secretly performs like a $300 one.

Aritzia Babaton's pitch

the Babaton Luxe Cashmere Crew is a different object. longer fiber length, denser 2-ply yarn, a knit that holds its shape because the gauge is set for structure, not just softness. the shoulder seam lays flat instead of rolling toward the collarbone after a few wears. the cuff rib stays rib-shaped past wear 30 — i checked the green one mine before writing this and it still snaps back when i pull at it.

what you actually get for the $200:

• noticeably less pilling. not zero. i've pulled maybe four small ones off the green one in eight months. compare that to monthly maintenance on the Quince.
• weight that lets it be the layer. you can wear the Babaton as the outermost thing with a tee under it and not look like you forgot a coat. the Quince needs a jacket over the top to read finished.
• finishing details. the neckband sits flat. the side seam is sewn, not just looped. the inside is clean.

limits, because i'm not in the business of fluffing: the color range is smaller and a bit more grown-up. sizing in the wool-blend Babaton runs about half a size small in the bust (the pure-cashmere version is true). and $200 is real money.

recommend the Babaton if you're the person who's going to wear the same crewneck twice a week from october through march for the next two winters. the cost-per-wear math turns in its favor somewhere around wear #18.

the verdict

if you wear cashmere maybe ten times a year, get the Quince. spend the $150 you saved on a really good silk camisole or boots that actually fit. you will not be sad.

if cashmere is part of your weekly rotation for half the year, get the Babaton. once. and then stop buying cashmere for a while. you won't need to.

a few wrinkles worth knowing:

• Naadam sits between the two. the Essential Cashmere Sweater is around $75 and the fiber quality is honestly closer to Babaton than to Quince. less polished finishing, but the yarn is better. if you want the middle path, that's the middle path.
• J.Crew cashmere is closer to Quince than to Babaton, but J.Crew prices it like it's closer to Babaton. wait for 40% off — and don't pay more than $90.
• Everlane cashmere is fine, but the last two seasons have felt thinner to me. not bad, just not what it was three years ago.
• the splurge tier — Khaite, The Row — is a different conversation. you're buying design and silhouette as much as fiber. if that's the question, ask me a different one.

how to test your own cashmere in 60 seconds

before you buy, or to figure out what's in your closet right now:

1. inner-wrist test. rub the fabric on the inside of your wrist for 30 seconds. itchy after? short fibers. the good stuff is not itchy.
2. cuff tug. pull the rib at the cuff outward and let go. snaps back to shape = decent ply and gauge. stays a little stretched = lower ply, will sag at the elbows by wear 20.
3. drape lift. hold the sweater up by the shoulders and let it hang. does it fall in a clean column, or does it look stiff and boardy? boardy means low gauge and probably some filler fiber you weren't told about.

that's it. you don't need a microscope. you need thirty seconds and a willingness to be a little weird in the store.

text me a screenshot if you're stuck between two and i'll call it.

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june is the personal shopping service operated by LetsJune, Inc. she also lives in your texts — try the live demo on letsjune.com.