Material Success : A garment is only as good as the quality of its fabric. For the proper touch of class, weave and texture are the giveaways.

To unravel the secret of a well-made garment, look at its fabric.

Better yet, feel the fabric. Is it soft or scratchy? Do your fingers run smoothly over its surface? If it feels good, chances are that it’s a high-quality material and that the garment itself has been constructed with attention to detail.

A fine fabric is what separates a good-looking garment from one that looks, well, cheap. It can cause a suit to drape instead of rumple, or pants to flow smoothly over the legs instead of clinging to the calves.

This season there’s more attention to fabrics than ever because styles are rather austere. Bereft of obvious ornamentation and distracting prints, the fabric of a garment suddenly comes into focus. Luxury fibers such as silk, linen, cashmere and wool, often blended in innovative combinations, become important. Weaves and textures are more pronounced.

Ermenegildo Zegna, a new menswear store in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, often experiments with blends of fibers to create one-of-a-kind fabrics for its collection of suits, sport coats, jackets and other men’s clothing.

Zegna began in Italy as a textile company in 1910 and still makes its own fabric at a mill high in the mountains of Trivero. The company’s fall line includes suits of finely spun wool, such as a sport coat of taupe-colored wool crepe with a subtle waffle texture ($850); a sport coat of cashmere and linen blend in whiskey green or blue ($1,150), and a collection of pure cashmere sweaters, including a baby-soft crew neck of multicolored yarn ($695).

“Consumers are much more conscious of fabrics,” says Richard Cohen, president of the Ermenegildo Zegna Corp. in New York City. “If you don’t have good quality fiber and fabric, a suit isn’t going to perform. A so-so garment will have tell-tale signs. In a humid climate the seams will bubble or the fabric will pill.”

Cohen has chosen a finely woven taupe suit to take him through a long day that includes appointments in Orange County, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“My suit will look the same tonight as it does this morning,” he says. The reason is the fabric. The wool is spun and woven so tight it doesn’t wrinkle.

To weigh the quality of the fabric used in a sport coat, he suggests first shutting your eyes and feeling the sleeves.

“If it’s smooth and not oily, nine times out of 10 it will be of good quality,” he says. “Then put it on. If it’s soft on you and not stiff, it’s a fine fabric.”

The quality of the fabric begins with the fibers from which it is woven. Cashmere is considered a luxury fiber because of its softness and relative scarcity. Silk is renowned for the way it feels and the way it takes color, while wool is prized for its versatility, spinning qualities and durability.

A label announcing the presence of these fibers is not, however, a guarantee of good quality. A sweater that’s 100% cashmere may be made from poor quality cashmere, Cohen says.

“The cashmere may have been picked up from the mill floor,” he says.

Some unscrupulous manufacturers even mix cashmere with other fibers without disclosing so on the label.

“That’s why you have cashmere at all different price points,” says Lisa Cervantes, senior vice president of TSE Cashmere.

TSE (pronounced SAY) gets its cashmere from the undercoats of Kashmir goats it raises in China.

“What makes it expensive and unique is that it’s difficult to get a lot of fiber,” Cervantes says. “After the fiber is combed off the goat, it has to be sorted by length, diameter and softness. When you sort it, you end up with incredible, cloud-like fluff.”

Some manufacturers don’t sort the fiber in order to lower their costs. They can still call it “pure cashmere,” but you can feel the difference, Cervantes says.

“It should feel very silky. A cashmere sweater should not have a lot of hairs sticking out like Angora. That’s a sign of poor quality.”

The men’s and women’s separates at TSE Cashmere in South Coast Plaza are made solely from natural fibers, from a lightweight cashmere and silk blend to a thick, coat-weight material of 100% cashmere. Sea island cotton and extra-fine wool twisted so tight it feels like cotton are also used in the collections. For fall, TSE created crop tops in a nubby cashmere silk chenille ($365), a silk poor-boy cardigan ($365) and a pure cashmere car coat ($1,150).

“With any natural fabric, you want a soft, silky hand,” Cervantes says. “It’s really the way the fabric feels to the touch.”

How the fiber is spun and woven greatly influences its “hand.” Cotton can feel like cashmere and wool like silk if tightly spun and woven.

Zegna uses a finely spun cotton to make a sport coat that has plenty of body but the feel of cashmere (available in an olive and taupe glen plaid for $700). Its super 100 wool is spun 100 kilometers for every gram of fiber, producing a fabric with such a tight weave that it has a soft touch but doesn’t wrinkle, Cohen says. One suit comes in navy super 100 wool with a hand-stitched double-breasted collar ($1,450).

A fabric need not be of natural fibers to be of high quality. Many synthetic yarns and fibers can create great-looking garments.

Synthetics have improved greatly since the days of stiff and suffocating polyester. Some breathe like cotton, drape like a fine wool crepe and hold their color better than silk.

Mondi in Fashion Island Newport Beach and MainPlace/Santa Ana uses both synthetic and natural fibers in its collections. There’s a scarf print blouse made of viscose ($190), a soft blazer ($290) and skirt ($170) in coffee-colored microfiber, and cranberry-colored pants in textured velvet made of a cotton and rayon blend ($170).

The synthetics are used to enhance the performance of the fabric.

Viscose is often used for blouses because “it dyes much better than silk, and it’s more durable,” says Cathie Phillips, manager of Mondi in MainPlace. Velvet pants have rayon added to the cotton so they’re not as stiff as 100% cotton. Some of Mondi’s knits have acrylic added to the wool because they hold up better in the wash, and they’re cooler than pure wool.

Whether synthetic or natural, the method for judging a fabric is the same: Reach out and touch it. Well-made synthetics should have the same soft, smooth hand as natural fabrics. The proof of the quality is at one’s fingertips.