Why Niigata?
A note on the small Japanese knitting town that produces our cashmere — and why whole-garment knitting changes how a sweater wears.
by Hana Mori
Niigata is a quiet prefecture on the west coast of Japan. It snows there for four months a year, which is why the textile mills set up — the humidity made the yarn behave. We took a sleeper train up from Tokyo to visit the workshop that knits our crews. The Shima Seiki machines they use produce the entire garment in one continuous program — no side seam, no shoulder seam, no place for the knit to weaken or fray. It costs more to make a sweater this way. It also lasts decades longer.