An Elegant and Royal Qualities - Vicuna Fabric

Vicuna is widely believed to be the rarest, most exclusive, and very special high-quality noble hand knitting yarn. This rare type of yarn comes from the high altitudes of the Andes in South America. Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. Because of its rarity and unique properties, it is considered to be the yarn of the yarns which has elegant and royal wearing qualities.

What is Vicuna?

Vicuna is relative to the llama and a member of the camelid family. High altitudes of the Andes in South America. Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru are the homelands of these rare creatures. It lives and feeds on the Grasslands and the plains of the mountains are their usual place for living and feeding. In between attitudes from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above sea level they roam wildly and freely. One of the features that have made vicuna unique is they cannot be domesticated. Vicuna fiber comes from wild vicuna which has to be gently caught and released back into the open nature. Vicunas can only be shorn once in every three years. In comparison to alpacas and sheep which can be shorn every year in a large amount.

 

Significance of Vicuna Fabric:

Vicuna is not only the lightest and warmest fabric in the world but also the most expensive. A coat and scarf made of vicuna would cost about $20,000 and $4,000 respectively as per the Wall Street Journal. It is also the finest natural fabric in the world that contains each fiber of about 12 microns in diameter which is one-third of the diameter of a single human hair. It is very fine wool but feels like a luxurious blend of silk.

 

History:

A rumor regarding vicuna is believed about the reincarnation of a beautiful young woman. Due to being acquiesced with an old and unpleasant king's courtship, she received a stunning vicuna coat. This incident paved the way only for the royalty to wear vicuna fiber clothing in the ancient Inca times!

Once upon a time, three million vicunas roamed the rocky terrains of the Andes But after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors “the silk of the new world”, guns were made the primary method to treat vicunas. The fiber was used for entertaining and enjoyment of King Philip II’. The animals were hunted for centuries after centuries rather than sheared for a material relatively finer than cashmere. 

 

By The 1950s, vicuna got enough international spotlight. One of the most notable occurrences regarding vicuna was a scandal concerning Sherman Adams(US President Dwight Eisenhower’s chief of staff) who was forced to resign in 1958 after accepting a vicuna overcoat from a textile mogul. The mogul was blacklisted under federal investigation. This famous case is known as the "Vicuna Coat Affair".Though there was more than a million vicuna during the time of the Incas, there were only 5,000 between the 1960s and The 1970s.

In between the '60s & the '70s, controls were first introduced on the trade of vicuna wool. After many ineffectual attempts, the government of Peru put its egregious foot down and banned the hunting of the species as much of the vicuna population lived there. In the mid of 1970, Steps were taken soon to classify vicuna as an officially endangered species with a prohibition act placed on all trade of its wool by The Washington Convention (Convention on International Trade-in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). The United Nations monitoring agency of trade involving endangered animals and plants banned any kind of trade regarding the vicuna species.

The Washington Convention relaxed its restrictions by 1994. After a while, the Peruvian government also permitted to export of vicuna in the form of fabric and finished products. Since then, official sourcing, shearing, and researching of vicuna have started to develop a variety of items without endangering the existence of the species.

 

Present Scenario: 

In the present-day, the total global supply of annually produced transformed vicuna yarn is only about 12 tonnes. Nowadays vicuna is harvested in a very similar manner as in the days of the Incas. They are sheared for their wool and then set free into the wild. Being unsuitable for farming, the low yield rate in three years along with the relatively low numbers of vicunas makes vicuna fabric very rare and expensive. The unique warmth and wonderfully creamy texture of vicuna ensure that it will remain the most expensive fabric in the world.

 

Bibliography:

1. Laughing Hens
2. business of fashion
3. Empress Crest
4. Pinterest
5. Etsy
6. pascualis

Sakib Al Muntasir

Wet Process Engineering, 44th Batch

Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX)