How Lisa Yang’s Inner Mongolian cashmere balances rapid growth while staying independent
The Inner Mongolian-native designer marries Scandinavian ease with quality materials, redefining the modern cashmere industry.
In her wood-panelled Stockholm headquarters, Lisa Yang pulls out three little bags of undyed, unwoven cashmere yarn – they are as light as air and smooth as butter to touch. “Inner Mongolia produces the world’s best cashmere because the extreme cold causes its cashmere goats to grow exceptionally fine, long and soft undercoats,” she says, as she slowly unravels parts of the woolly clusters. “We always source the best cashmere available. This one is particularly soft, durable and lightweight.”
Having grown up near Inner Mongolia, a northeastern region of China, Yang’s familiarity with the fibre stretches back to her childhood. Her parents were involved in textile production and she would visit factories and cashmere herders as a young girl. When she moved to Stockholm, Yang put this knowledge to good use by launching her eponymous label with her husband, Samuel Stenberg, in 2014. The result is one of the fastest-growing cashmere specialist brands in the luxury market.
“We had this shared dream to build a perfect business,” says Stenberg from the office that he shares with Yang. The couple are dressed in cashmere sets from their own collections (grey trousers and a voluminous black cardigan for her and a fuzzy argyle jumper for him) and we are surrounded by fabric swatches, sketches and inspiration mood boards. “Our three pillars are to be profitable, low-risk and scalable. We started with no external capital, which meant slow growth at the beginning, but word of mouth eventually helped fuel growth.”
The brand, which has remained independent, turned over €20.8m in 2024, with a 900 per cent increase in sales over the past four years. The company is stocked in more than 500 retailers across 45 countries and Stenberg and Yang also hint that a retail shop might be on the cards in the near future.
The construction and quality of the cashmere is part of the duo’s winning formula but the appeal also lies in competitive pricing. Classic cashmere jumpers are priced between €335 and €990, with costs determined by the quality of the fabric rather than marketing or inflation.
“We use the best fibres and try to push the craft, working with the fit, the silhouette, the details and innovation,” says Yang as she moves around the company’s showroom, where knitwear across a soothing palette of butter yellow, dark grey and cream line the rails. “The inspiration for the designs comes from Scandinavia but I wouldn’t call the style minimalist,” she says. “We like colour too much to be considered minimalists.”
lisa-yang.com
