Biella, at the foot of the Alps.

Set where the Piedmont plain runs up against the Alps, Biella has been spinning fine yarn for longer than most countries have had a fashion industry. The reason is water. Soft alpine water arrives off the mountains carrying almost no mineral content, which scours and finishes wool without hardening it, and the whole town grew up around that single advantage.

The quarter zip is knitted there at twelve gauge, a middling weight chosen for one reason. Finer than twelve and cashmere becomes a layer that disappears under a jacket and does nothing on its own. Heavier and it turns into outerwear and stops working indoors. Twelve gauge does both jobs, which is the whole argument for it in a collection of four.

It is knitted fully fashioned, meaning each panel is shaped on the machine rather than cut out of a larger piece, and the collar is linked by hand. Both cost more than the alternative and neither is visible on the finished garment. What they do is keep the shoulder from going soft somewhere around the fourth year, which is where most cashmere gives up.

Nothing on the piece announces where it came from. The zip is unbranded brass, the colour was chosen so it will not read as a particular year, and the only mark anywhere on it is the shield, stitched tonally on the inside.