Quince Vs. Jenni Kayne: Which Cashmere Cardigan Takes the Cake?
By Dana Dickey,
2 days ago
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I was catching up with a colleague when she pulled at my sweater. “Is this the Jenni Kayne?” “No, it’s the Quince,” I replied. “What, it looks just like the Jenni Kayne!” she said, stroking my cardigan arms. “And this is all cashmere, too?”
Yes, all cashmere too. My insider friend’s mistaken sweater ID was the inspiration for me to test the Quince Mongolian Cashmere Oversized Boyfriend Cardigan ($150) against the Jenni Kayne Cashmere Cocoon Cardigan ($475). At a glance, the two best-selling sweaters look a lot alike—but one costs more than three times the other. What gives? I decided to do a side-by-side comparison test, because I needed this capsule wardrobe hero item to refresh my fall and winter wardrobe. And hey, at PureWow, we love a side-by-side test (Hello ballet flats !)—here are my honest results.
Quince is a direct-to-consumer brand that launched in 2019 as a way to make high-quality, responsibly manufactured fashion at an affordable price point. Jenni Kayne is a luxury label launched in 2002 that creates fashion, beauty and home décor in textural neutral tones of natural fabrics. I’m based in Los Angeles, so I strongly identify with native Californian Jenni Kayne’s minimalist, nature-inspired pieces and love visiting her boutiques here, since they’re calm, highly curated and beautifully appointed. Her cashmere separates have long been bestsellers, and PureWow editors jealously regard one another when we get to review them. Quince, too, is highly valued, although its rep is more about workday and weekend basics than luxury, and its $50 cashmere crewneck put it on the map as competition in the DTC cashmere market against other affordable cashmere lines such as Naadam and Grana . One mark against Quince—unlike Jenni Kayne, there’s no flagship Quince store for me to go hang around and feel better, like Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of Breakfast at Tiffany’s .
How I Tested the Sweaters
I wore my Quince sweater around town with jeans and with my pajamas on a long WFH stretch. I tried the Jenni Kayne sweater on in store and wore it around for a while as I was browsing the shop. Additionally, I studied online reviews and studied past staff reports about item and brand quality.
After I got my Quince’s cashmere cardigan, I was immediately struck with how heavy the sweater felt. A Quince rep explained that this season, select pieces of its cashmere collection have been re-tooled with softer yarn and with 20 to 25 percent more cashmere, giving the sweater tiger tension to retain its shape, as well as improved piling performance. The color I got, beige, is the ideal neutral tone, with a touch of warmth so that it doesn’t look washed out against my skin. The double-knit edges of the sweater are reinforced, as are the button holes, so I can tell it’s not going to become frayed with use. For such a delicate item as a cashmere sweater, I was able to tie it around my waist during a hot afternoon, and then when I went to put it on again, it wasn’t stretched out. The weight of the knit is, to me, unprecedented at this price point, and so it was super warm and felt more like a light jacket. The cut is oversized, so keeping that in mind, I’d recommend ordering your usual size. (Note to petites and cropped sweater fans: Check out the Quince cropped cashmere cardigan for $120.) Some of the colors—such as the faded denim and the brown—seem a bit dowdy, but there are plenty of gorgeous neutrals like the oatmeal one I wear, ivory and teak, a khaki-brown hue.
This sweater, like Daisy Buchanan’s laugh, sounds like money. The finish of the knit is super-smooth, with no fuzzy bits. (My friend, who has worn hers for two seasons, reports next-to-no long-term pilling.) The colors of this yarn, Mongolian cashmere, are subtle perfection: I’d treasure any of the four classic shades, like the heathered grey or the five seasonal ones, which include not one or two but three khaki colors: russet, taupe and undyed stone. The knit of this sweater is chunkier and airier than the Quince, which on my albeit brief wear seems to trap heat more efficiently, so it’s a warmer sweater. The faux horn buttons look expensive, and the armholes are knit a bit higher than the Quince, so there is a more slender effect along the sleeves. I appreciate that this sweater comes in 10 sizes, from XXS to 3X, so that wearers can choose just how oversized they want the look to be. (I’m usually a small, and I’m glad I followed the brand’s recommendation to take on or two sizes smaller—the XXS was just right). There's also a cropped version .
Quince vs. Jenni Kayne Cashmere Cardigan Final Notes
Overall, I’m surprised by how much I love both brands’ oversized cardigans, since before I tried on these all-cashmere iterations, I always thought the sweaters would look too sloppy on me, a petite. While overall I prefer the tailored arms and slightly shorter body of the Jenni Kayne, as well as the more expensive-looking buttons and dyes, I’m not in a position to spend more than four bills on it. (I’d live in terror of moths, for one thing.) Instead, I’m feeling and looking great in my Quince sweater, and looking forward to new colors.
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PureWow's editors and writers have spent more than a decade shopping online, digging through sales and putting our home goods, beauty finds, wellness picks and more through the wringer—all to help you determine which are actually worth your hard-earned cash. From our PureWow100 series (where we rank items on a 100-point scale) to our painstakingly curated lists of fashion, beauty, cooking, home and family picks, you can trust that our recommendations have been thoroughly vetted for function, aesthetics and innovation. Whether you're looking for travel-size hair dryers you can take on-the-go or women’s walking shoes that won’t hurt your feet, we’ve got you covered.
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