Which Quiet Luxury Clothing Brands Will Still Look Good in 10 Years?

Have you ever watched Succession and wondered where they bought those sweaters?

Not the plot. The SWEATERS.

My friend Colette noticed it first. We were rewatching season three and she paused on Shiv's beige cashmere set and said, "I need to know where that's from." Three hours later we'd fallen down a rabbit hole of production notes, costume designer interviews, and discovered that most of the Roy family wardrobe came from three brands: Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, and The Row.

She bought a Loro Piana sweater the next week. That was two years ago and I'm still hearing about how it was the best purchase she's ever made. (Colette works in private equity and has strong opinions about cost-per-wear calculations. She's that kind of friend.)

Here's what actually surprised me though. Colette sent me this Bain & Company report from 2024 and apparently the whole luxury market shrank for the first time in like fifteen years? People stopped buying. But the quiet luxury brands, the ones nobody can identify from across the room, those kept growing. Brunello Cucinelli did almost $300 million in a single quarter. Grew 33% while everyone else was declining.

Something weird is happening here.

What Actually Makes Quiet Luxury Clothing "Investment-Worthy"

Look, I know "investment piece" is thrown around so loosely it's almost meaningless now. Every brand from Zara to Hermès calls their stuff investment pieces.

But there's a real framework here that Colette taught me. She calculates cost-per-wear obsessively. (Like I said. Private equity.) A $2,400 cashmere sweater worn twice a week for five years works out to $4.60 per wear. A $200 sweater that pills after one season and you wear maybe 15 times before donating? That's $13.33 per wear.

The math only works though if the piece LASTS five years. Which brings us to materials.

Real investment clothing tends to share a few characteristics. The cashmere comes from specific regions, usually Inner Mongolia or Mongolia proper, from the neck and belly of the goat where the fibers are longest and finest. The construction uses techniques that take more time. And perhaps most importantly for quiet luxury specifically, the designs don't scream any particular year.

Totême's signature coat has been worn by Jennifer Lawrence. It still looks like it could have been designed yesterday or five years ago. That's the point.

Resale matters too. Almost half of luxury buyers now check what something will be worth used before they buy it new, according to The RealReal's 2025 numbers. And here's the thing I didn't expect: the brands nobody can identify from across the room? Those are the ones holding value. Loro Piana, The Row, Bottega. Searches jumped 29% in a single year. I guess people figured out that a logo you can spot from ten feet away dates faster than cashmere without one.

The Ultra-Luxury Quiet Luxury Brands: Where Your Money Actually Goes

Brunello Cucinelli Cashmere

I can't think of a stranger origin story than Brunello Cucinelli's. The company is still headquartered in a restored medieval castle in Solomeo, Italy. The founder still works there. He pays his workers above market rate and built a theater and library for the village.

Like, what?

Colette went to visit their headquarters once. (She does things like that.) She said the cashmere is hand-collected from goats in Mongolia, dyed using traditional plant-based methods, and that the women's pieces often feature handmade beadwork that takes hours per garment. She came back converted.

Current prices are steep. A cashmere sweater runs $2,400 to $3,000. Cashmere joggers are around $1,700 to $2,400. The cashmere hoodie is roughly $3,000.

Pre-owned Cucinelli holds up surprisingly well. I've seen those same joggers going for $700 to $900 on resale platforms, which means you're losing maybe 60% instead of the 80% or more you'd lose on most fashion.

The cashmere is slightly less soft than Loro Piana's but noticeably more durable and pill-resistant. Colette says it's the better choice if you're actually going to wear it regularly versus looking at it in your closet.

Loro Piana Baby Cashmere

This is the old money brand. Founded in 1924, now part of LVMH but still operating independently. If you work in tech in San Francisco and you're a certain kind of executive, this is probably what you're wearing to look like you're not trying.

No visible exterior branding. Just the interior label. The entire company philosophy comes down to fiber obsession, which sounds boring until you learn that they source baby cashmere exclusively from the underfleece of Mongolian Hircus goat kids. Not adult goats. Kids. And their vicuña pieces? The Andean animals can only be sheared once every two years, so a single garment needs fiber from multiple animals. That's why vicuña starts around $10,000 and why Sebastien's wife looked at me like I was insane when I asked if it was "worth it."

You don't have to go vicuña though, obviously. A regular baby cashmere sweater is more like $1,500 to $2,500. Still painful but not insane. The blazers run around five grand.

Here's what I think matters more than the branding stuff though. Loro Piana actually does technical innovation, which feels weird to say about a cashmere company. Sebastien showed me this thing where his jacket is fully waterproof? Like, he got caught in a downpour and the water just beaded off. They call it Storm System or something. There's also a Rain System for lighter pieces. So it's not JUST about soft fabric, there's actual engineering happening.

Sebastien bought a Loro Piana coat maybe five years ago now. Beige, camel-ish. I saw him wearing it last month and genuinely thought he'd just gotten it. Nothing about it screams 2020 or whatever year he actually bought it. That's kind of the whole point, right?

The Row Ophelia and Beyond

The Olsen twins founded this in 2006 and somehow it's the only American brand competing in this tier.

Right, so. The pricing. Their Ophelia jumper, which is a wool-cashmere blend, runs about £1,440 or $1,800. Pure cashmere sweaters are around $1,600. The Holmes wool jacket is £4,610, roughly $5,800.

I did the comparison shopping, and you can find pre-owned Row cashmere on eBay for $480 to $780 if you're patient. Which is kind of WILD given the retail prices.

The Margaux bag has gotten all the press lately. You've probably seen the articles calling it "the new Birkin." But for a clothing article, I'm more interested in the knitwear. The Ophelia is their most popular piece, with this clean oversized shape and sculptural back detail that photographs really distinctively. (I actually borrowed a Margaux for two weeks and have thoughts about the hype.)

Only five monobrand stores worldwide. They're clearly playing the scarcity game that worked for Hermès.

What I find interesting is how investment bags have resale data that's trackable and consistently outperform most asset classes, but clothing resale is murkier. The Row seems to be building toward similar dynamics with pieces like the Margaux.

The Accessible Quiet Luxury Clothing Tier

Khaite Cashmere Cardigans

Catherine Holstein founded this in 2016 and it's become the default answer to "I want quiet luxury but not six thousand dollars quiet luxury."

Their thing is the cinched-waist cardigan silhouette. I've seen it described as "sexy librarian" which, okay fine. The Scarlet cardigan in cashmere is $2,200. The Marc is $2,400. Less expensive options exist though. The Leta sweater is $1,180. The Milo is $1,280.

Pre-owned cardigans show up on Lyst starting around $792, which is roughly 60% off retail.

Two details that Who What Wear editors point out: the fisherman's rib-stitched trim on the Scarlet cardigan is a recognizable brand identifier, and the tortoiseshell buttons appear throughout the collection. Subtle but distinctive.

My friend Margaux, who is honestly more fashion-conscious than anyone I know, says Khaite is where she'd start if she were building a quiet luxury wardrobe from scratch. Not with a $5,000 coat but with a sweater you can actually style multiple ways.

Totême Coats and Old Money Aesthetic

Swedish minimalism. Founded in Stockholm in 2014 by husband-wife duo Elin Kling and Karl Lindman.

Their signature camel wool-cashmere coat is what made Jennifer Lawrence a fan. The Draped Wool Fringe Jacket with scarf detailing got copied so much on the high street that you now see the shape everywhere.

Pricing is noticeably lower than the ultra-luxury tier. Winter coats range €800 to €1,500. You can find pre-owned Totême on Vestiaire Collective regularly.

The RealReal's 2025 report specifically named Totême among their "breakout year-over-year search leaders," which suggests resale demand is building.

What makes Totême work is focus. They're not trying to be everything. Capsule wardrobe staples. Recycled materials in their cape collections. The whipstitch detailing on certain coats has become their signature, kind of like how white sneakers have become identifiable by specific design details across luxury brands.

Max Mara Icon Coat

I honestly almost didn't include Max Mara because it feels less like quiet luxury and more like classic luxury? But the 101801 Icon Coat has dressed stylish women for four decades and that matters.

Camel hair or wool-cashmere blend. Classic single-breasted cut. Slightly longer length than trendy. Minimal detailing.

If you're looking for one coat that will still look right at fifty, this is probably the safest choice.

The Supporting Cast: Stealth Wealth Brands

Bottega Veneta

Their Intrecciato weave leather is instantly recognizable to people who know, invisible to everyone else. Founded in 1966 in Vicenza, Italy. A$AP Rocky and Jacob Elordi show up to their shows regularly, which gives you a sense of the demographic.

Bottega's clothing is less famous than their bags but follows the same principles: craft and drape over logos.

Jil Sander

Nicknamed "Queen of Less." The brand has been around since 1968, though Luke and Lucie Meier left the creative department earlier this year. Margaux describes Jil Sander as "Totême if Totême went to art school and never came back." I think she means it's minimalism as a philosophical statement rather than something you actually wear to brunch. Which is either appealing or exhausting depending on your personality.

Where to Actually Buy Quiet Luxury Clothing

Buying direct from the brand gives you better service and first access to new collections. But Colette swears by starting on resale.

Her logic: experiment with pre-owned first, figure out which brands actually work for your body and lifestyle, then buy retail for the pieces you KNOW you'll keep.

For resale specifically, Colette uses The RealReal almost exclusively. I've poked around Vestiaire Collective too but find it harder to navigate. Rebag is building out their clothing stuff apparently, though I haven't tried it.

Here's the thing about authentication though. With quiet luxury there's no big logo to check, so fakes are harder to spot. Colette got burned once on what turned out to be a fake Cucinelli sweater from some random consignment shop. Stick to platforms that actually authenticate.

What I Actually Think About Quiet Luxury 2026

Honestly? I haven't made the jump to any of these brands myself.

Colette keeps her Loro Piana in this cedar-lined drawer situation. She folds it a specific way, stores it differently in summer versus winter, the whole thing. Margaux won't let dry cleaners touch her Khaite because she's convinced they'll ruin it. She hand-washes cashmere in the sink like it's 1952.

I am not that person.

But I've been thinking about it differently lately. I wrote that piece about jewelry resale a few months ago, and the thing that kept coming up was how much the "right people knowing" matters. Like, a Van Cleef bracelet holds value partly because other Van Cleef people clock it immediately. Loro Piana works the same way, I think. It's this weird insider recognition thing that has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with... I don't know, club membership?

If I were actually going to do this, I'd start where Margaux said to start: a sweater. Something in the $1,500 to $2,500 zone. Not a $4,000 coat. Not some dramatic closet purge where I donate everything and "start fresh" like those Instagram people. That's not me.

One nice sweater though. Something I'd actually grab twice a week for the next few years. That I could maybe justify.

You bought anything from these brands yet? Or are you also just... thinking about it?