The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is a small wild camelid of the high Andes, found in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. It lives at roughly 3,200 to 4,800 meters, where a dense, fine coat is what keeps it alive through freezing nights. Unlike the alpaca, it has never been domesticated.
Each animal can be shorn no more than once every two years, and often less. The harvest happens through the chaccu, a communal round-up in which local communities herd wild vicuñas into enclosures, shear them and release them. Because the animals stay wild and each yields only a small fleece, supply cannot simply be scaled up to meet demand.
Vicuña fibers typically measure around 12–14 microns, against roughly 15–19 for standard cashmere and 13–15 for baby cashmere. That fineness is what gives vicuña cloth its soft hand and its warmth at very low weight.
Hunting reduced the vicuña to a few thousand animals by the 1960s, and it remains listed under CITES, the convention governing trade in endangered species. Certain national populations were later moved to a lower listing so that fiber shorn from live animals could be sold legally. Cloth and garments made from it are required to carry labelling that identifies the country of origin.
Loro Piana signed an agreement with Peruvian vicuña communities in 1994 and later established its own vicuña reserve in Peru. It is widely regarded as the largest buyer of the fiber, which is why so much of the vicuña that reaches the resale market carries its label.
