THE FIBRES · Nº 03 OF 03
Alpaca.
A fibre raised at altitude.
The fleece of the alpaca, which lives on the Andean altiplano, at almost four thousand metres. It is shorn once a year, and each winter it grows back.
On the Andean altiplano, the midday sun burns and the night freezes. There, the Quechua and Aymara peoples have raised the alpaca for some six thousand years, and always for the same purpose: its fibre. It lives in herds, at its own pace, in a landscape where little else thrives.
Each year, as the warm season arrives, it is shorn. By the following winter, the fleece has grown back: a fibre that renews itself with the animal.
— Atelier notes · Extremadura, Spain
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Two breeds, one animal.
The same species gives two very different fleeces, and each falls in its own way.
Huacaya
A soft, crimped fleece that rounds the animal out like a dense cloud. It is the more common of the two, around nine in every ten alpacas worldwide.
It makes coats with a spongy, matte handle and real body, leaving the cut to speak for itself.
Suri
A fleece that falls in long, silken locks and moves with the animal. It is the rarer of the two, barely one in ten.
It makes fluid, lustrous coats, with a drape close to silk and greater presence.
How to read alpaca.
When choosing a piece in alpaca, you will often come across names such as Suri Baby Alpaca or Royal Alpaca. They combine two different things: the breed tells you what the fleece is like; the grade, how fine it is.
Breed
Huacaya · Suri
Appearance and drape
Grade
Royal Alpaca
Up to 19 microns, the finest and rarest
Baby Alpaca
Up to 22.5 microns
Superfine
Up to 26.5 microns
Baby alpaca does not come from young animals: it is the name of a grade of fineness, taken from the softest parts of the fleece.
