Cotton vs cashmere: what’s the difference?

Cotton and cashmere both end up in soft, comfortable clothing, so they are easy to confuse on a label. But they come from different worlds: cotton is a plant fibre, cashmere is an animal hair. That difference shapes everything — how they feel, how warm they are, how they are cared for and what they cost.

Where they come from

Cotton grows around the seeds of the cotton plant. After harvest, a gin separates the fibre from the seeds, and the fibre is pressed into bales for spinning.

Cashmere is the fine, soft undercoat of cashmere goats, which live in cold, dry highlands. Each spring the goats moult, and the down is either combed out by hand or shorn off. A goat gives on average about 100–200 grams of raw down a year, and at the very best around 450 grams; separating out the coarse guard hair leaves less again. That is the main reason cashmere is expensive.

What they are made of

Cotton is almost pure cellulose, the same material plants use to build their cells. Cashmere, like wool, is made of keratin, a protein. Under a microscope a cotton fibre looks like a flat, twisted ribbon, while cashmere is a round fibre covered in overlapping scales. Those scales are flatter and further apart than wool’s; that is how a laboratory tells cashmere from wool.

How they behave

Not better or worse — different jobs

Cotton is not a cheaper cashmere, and cashmere is not a luxury cotton. Cotton is the right choice for things that touch the skin every day, get washed often and need to breathe: T-shirts, underwear, babywear, towels. Cashmere is chosen for warmth and softness in cold-weather clothing that is worn over other layers and washed rarely.

What about blends?

Labels such as “cotton-cashmere” mean a blend, usually with a small share of cashmere for softness. The composition line on the label gives the exact percentages.