Plain cashmere sweaters are beating Louis Vuitton and Gucci
While big labels struggle with weak spending in China, Europe, and the U.S., understated cashmere is winning with the ultra rich and Gen Z.
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Many large fashion houses have struggled since the pandemic. Just when the sector hoped it would recover, it was dealt several recent blows. Lisa Jucca, a global industry editor at Reuters who covers luxury, describes them as a triple whammy: a tax crackdown on the wealthy in China, war involving Iran that is "stoking inflation and depressing spending in Europe," and, "for the first time," a slowdown in luxury spending in the United States.
Quiet luxury means expensive clothing without bold logos or flashy design, and both Cucinelli and Loro Piana focus on cashmere, a soft and costly wool. One reason these labels are holding up is that they appeal to shoppers at the upper echelons, what Jucca calls "the ultra wealthy who are immune" to inflation problems.
A second reason these quiet brands are doing well is a shift among Gen Z shoppers, people born roughly from the late 1990s through the early 2010s. They are less interested in obvious status from big logos and prefer luxury that does not show off.
The takeaway is that status has not disappeared. It has gone quiet. When spending is weak and bold logos feel like showing off, some buyers prefer luxury that does not call attention to itself.
Questions people ask
What makes cashmere so expensive?
Cashmere is a very soft, lightweight wool combed from cashmere goats, mostly raised in Mongolia, China, and Tibet. It takes far more goats and combing to make one sweater than regular sheep's wool, so it costs much more and has long been shorthand for understated wealth.
Why does a tax crackdown in China hurt European luxury brands?
China became the engine of luxury growth in the 2010s as hundreds of millions of shoppers entered the middle and upper classes. When Beijing cracks down on displays of wealth or taxes high earners more heavily, big logo-driven brands feel the drop in store traffic almost immediately.
Why would a young shopper pay more for no logo?
Logos work as a public signal that anyone can read, while quiet luxury uses fabric, cut, and fit that only knowledgeable shoppers notice. For younger buyers raised on social media and copies, subtlety can feel more authentic and less risky than wearing a billboard.