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THE FIBRES · Nº 01 OF 03
Camel hair
A fibre that nature gives of its own accord.
The inner down of the Bactrian camel — the two-humped camel. Each spring, as the warmth returns, the animal sheds it naturally.
The Bactrian camel. It lives on the steppes and in the Gobi Desert, between Mongolia and northern China, where winter falls below minus forty and summer climbs above forty degrees. To survive such extremes, it grows beneath its outer coat a fine, dense down that shields it from the cold while letting it breathe in the heat.
Nomadic herders have lived alongside it for centuries: it is their transport, their warmth and their companion.
The Bactrian camel. It lives on the steppes and in the Gobi Desert, between Mongolia and northern China, where winter falls below minus forty and summer climbs above forty degrees. To survive such extremes, it grows beneath its outer coat a fine, dense down that shields it from the cold while letting it breathe in the heat.
Nomadic herders have lived alongside it for centuries: it is their transport, their warmth and their companion.
— Atelier notes · Extremadura, Spain
The fibre.
Of the fleece, only the down is kept; the outer hair, coarse and reddish, is set aside. What remains is a long, fine fibre that traps the air: great warmth for little weight, moving with the body’s own temperature in the depths of winter and through the months in between.
To the touch, it has a dry, enveloping softness that yields a little more with every season.
Four things a camel-hair coat does.
Warmth
The fibre traps the air: great warmth, without bulk.
Handle
A dry softness, faintly fibrous, that yields a little more each season.
Drape
More body than cashmere. It holds the lapel open, carries the shoulder and does not give to the wind.
Colour
In its natural shade, there is no dye to fade: the years only deepen it.
The palette is the animal.
Camel hair needs no dye. Its colour comes from the fleece itself, from the palest tone of the young calf to the deep cocoa of the adult.
Calf
The calf’s fleece, the finest of all.
Young Bactrian
Young fleece, light in tone.
Pale camel
Young adult, first moult.
Camel
The classic tone.
Tobacco
From the adult’s back.
Hazel
Adult, a toasted tone.
Cocoa
Mature fleece, the deepest tone.
