From the Andes to the high fashion ateliers, here is the history and secrets of a fabric that is worth more than cashmere
Forget cashmere, in the world of high fashion and luxury textiles the finest wool in the world is found in the Andes. Is called vicuna wool (vicuña, in Spanish), and belongs to the small wild camelid of the same name that lives in the Peruvian mountains, at over 4,000 meters above sea level.
What is vicuna wool
Vicuña wool is not wool in the strict sense, but the fiber obtained from the fleece of Vicugna vicugnaa wild camelid similar to the llama that inhabits the ecosystem of the Andean puna, between 3,800 and 4,800 meters above sea level, mainly in Perubut also in Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.
It is considered one of the most valuable animal fibers in the world for a simple reason, namely its finesse. The average diameter of the fibers is in fact around 12 microns. For comparison, cashmere is between 14 and 19 microns.
The vicuna is therefore significantly thinner, and this characteristic makes it extraordinarily soft, light and delicate on the skin.
Furthermore, the structure of the scales that make up the fiber gives it a high felting capacitywhich in turn generates tissues equipped with a considerable heat capacitythat is, capable of maintaining body heat efficiently while remaining extremely light.
It is precisely the combination of extreme fineness, lightness, warmth and rarity that makes the vicuna a unique fibre, at the top of the world textile pyramid.
An ancient story
The history of this fine fabric begins far away, well before European high fashion discovered its virtues. Already during the Inca Empirethe vicuna was a sacred animal and its wool was reserved exclusively for the emperor and his inner circle.
Wearing a vicuna garment was a privilege that confirmed belonging to the elite. The collection of fiber was not just any practice, but a solemn and collective ritual called chaku (or chaccu), a Quechua word indicating the great ceremonial hunt.
The chaku took place every four years, the communities they gathered huge numbers of vicuñas, sheared them and released them. With the Spanish conquest and the collapse of the Inca Empire, the hunt for the animal began for the trade of the highly prized fibre, which over the centuries brought the species to the brink of extinction.
In the 1950s the population was reduced to a few thousand specimensa dramatically small number compared to the millions who once populated the Andes. It was only from the 1960s and 1970s that the governments of the Andean countries, under the pressure of international agreements, began to protect the vicuna with strict regulations.
The species was included in Appendix I of the CITESwhich prohibited international trade, and then moved to a more flexible regime that allowed the commercialization of the fiber coming exclusively from live animals shorn in a regulated manner.
This led to the reintroduction of chaku of the Incas, transformed into a sustainable and ethical shearing practice. It is held every year (no longer every four) and involves local communities, who gather the vicuñas, shear them and release them, ensuring the conservation of the species.
Haute couture
If vicuña is the rarest and most prized fiber in the world, it’s no surprise that garments made with it achieve astronomical figures and that its use is the exclusive prerogative of a very small circle of absolute luxury brands.
A pure vicuna sweater can easily reach a figure of several thousand euros, while for coats and outerwear they can even exceed 20 and 30,000 euros. Definitely prohibitive figures, but on the other hand the rarity of the fiber is extreme.
The vicuna remains a symbol of silent and inaccessible luxury, a material that knows no seasonality and which remains firmly in the hands of luxury fashion houses and a few other noble fiber specialists.
