Where the world's best knitwear is made

UK & Ireland

• England

  5 houses

  England's contribution to luxury knitwear is the fine-gauge knit: extra-fine merino and Sea Island cotton knitted at 24–30 gauge in Derbyshire and the Midlands, a tradition that began with the stocking frame in the 16th century..

• Guernsey

  1 house

  Guernsey gave its name to the guernsey: a dense, tightly knitted worsted-wool fisherman's jumper with a distinctive square shape, still made on the island by hand-finishing knitters..

• Ireland

  1 house

  Ireland is home to the Aran sweater, the textured, cabled fisherman's knit from the Aran Islands off Galway, and to a small group of houses that have turned the island's hand-knitting heritage into refined luxury knitwear..

• Scotland

  6 houses

  Scotland is the historic centre of luxury cashmere knitting.

• Wales

  1 house

  Wales's contribution to luxury knitwear is hand-framed: a small number of family firms in the former mining valleys still knit on manually operated frames and hand-finish socks and sweaters to order..

Europe

• Europe (multi-country)

  1 house

  Some luxury knitwear houses are pan-European by design: they source natural fibres and produce in family-run factories across several European countries rather than a single national mill..

France

• France

  3 houses

  France contributes two distinct luxury knitwear traditions: the Breton and Norman marinière, knitted in dense combed wool and cotton since the 19th century, and the Parisian cashmere specialists who source Mongolian fibre and finish it with French fashion sensibility..

Central Europe

• Germany

  1 house

  Germany's luxury knitwear is led by cashmere specialists in Munich and the south, who combine Mongolian fibre with precise, quality-focused production..

Nordics

• Iceland

  1 house

  Iceland's knitwear is built on lopi, the unspun or lightly spun wool of the Icelandic sheep, whose dual-coat fleece gives the lopapeysa yoke sweater its distinctive warmth and weather resistance..

• Norway

  2 houses

  Norway's luxury knitwear is defined by pattern: the two-colour lusekofte and Setesdal traditions, the Marius sweater, and mills such as Dale of Norway that have knitted wool sweaters for Olympic teams since 1956..

• Sweden

  1 house

  Sweden's contribution to luxury knitwear is contemporary and design-led: Stockholm houses that combine Scandinavian minimalism with cashmere sourced from Mongolia and knitted in specialist mills..

Italy

• Italy

  10 houses

  Italy is the largest and most influential luxury knitwear producer.

Asia

• Japan

  2 houses

  Japanese luxury knitwear is prized for technical precision: mills in Yamagata, Niigata and Gunma knit on Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT machines and finish garments with obsessive attention to hand and fit..

• Mongolia

  1 house

  Mongolia is the second-largest source of raw cashmere after China and the only major origin where cashmere is knitted at scale by domestic luxury brands close to the herders who produce it..

Benelux

• Netherlands

  2 houses

  The Netherlands is a newer voice in luxury knitwear, led by Amsterdam labels designing minimal, one-size cashmere knitted in Mongolian and European mills..

Americas

• Peru

  1 house

  Peru supplies about 80% of the world's alpaca and is home to the mills of Arequipa that grade, spin and knit baby and royal alpaca into luxury knitwear..

• United States

  3 houses

  American luxury knitwear is led by Los Angeles and New York labels: hand-dyed and hand-loomed cashmere from California, and direct-to-consumer cashmere houses that source in Mongolia..

• Uruguay

  1 house

  Uruguay's knitwear is defined by hand-knitting cooperatives in the countryside and a national wool industry that supplies merino and Corriedale yarns to international luxury labels..