Holiday Gift Shopping, lesson one

Cashmere sweaters are a staple gift during the holiday season. But how does one decide how much to spend? After all, this basic item spans a wide range of prices. You can buy an Isaac Mizrahi cashmere for $34.99 at Target. A similar one, from Lands' End, sells for $99. Then there's some from J. Crew that cost around $175. But if you really want to drop some cash, check out these from Brunello Cucinelli, which start at around $1000 a piece at Saks Fifth Avenue.

A recent Wall Street Journal article explores the difference between two of these sweaters: a Lands' End item, on the cheap end, and a Brunelli sweater, on the ridiculously expensive one. The writer's findings aren't terribly surprising in some sense: the details of the Brunelli sweater, in addition to the fact that it's handmade, win it some extra points, despite its hefty price tag. As Binkley writes," The standout facets of the Cucinelli sweater are sleeves that taper at the forearm and then flare at the wrist, and layers of silk chiffon that have been hand-sewn at the neck and wrists."

But she really seemed impressed with how and where each sweater was made:

The label of the Lands' End sweater says "Made in China." Lands' End gave me an extensive primer on its Mongolian yarns. But it turned out that the company isn't involved in that part of the process. It purchases the finished sweaters from a factory in China -- and it's the factory that buys cashmere at auction. Ms. Casper said the Chinese factory spins, cards, combs, and dyes the yarn and weaves it into garments according to Lands' End's specifications….

I was troubled by the company's reticence about the factory that made my sweater. This came against a backdrop of news stories out of China's industrial sector that included recalls of toys, toothpaste and other consumer products. Many people have seen film and photos of Chinese factory workers living in sparse dormitories far from home and working long hours.

Compare this to the set up for how a Brunelli sweater is made:

Both the Saks saleswoman and Massimo Caronna, Cucinelli's U.S. spokesman and owner of Italian fashion distributor IMC Group, eagerly elaborated on the manufacturing. Mr. Caronna even invited me to visit the factory where my sweater was made, in the tiny Italian village of Solomeo in Umbria, though I didn't make the trip.

According to him, the goat hairs in my sweater traveled in bales from Mongolia to one of several factories in Italy where it was made into yarn. Cucinelli buys about 70% of its yarn from the Italian luxury thread purveyor Cariaggi.

The yarn was then shipped to the Cucinelli factory, which is in a 17th-century castle. Each of its 1,500 employees has a key, says Mr. Caronna. They work each day from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., breaking for a 90-minute lunch.

The Lands' End sweater is made in a factory in China—the Cucineli sweater is hand stitched in a 17th century castle. Sounds nice, but is it worth the $900 price tag difference?

The Lands' End spokesperson says in the article that their sweaters are guaranteed to last for many years. Cucinelli didn't cite a guarantee, but for such a high price, you'd think it should last a lifetime. After all, 25% of their workers are dedicated to softness and quality control, Binkley writes.

In the end, how much would you pay for " style, quality and global social awareness"? I'm not so sure it's worth $900, unless you just happen to have it sitting around somewhere.