While an alpaca fibre has an overall larger diameter than a cashmere fibre after animals are shorn experts hand sort the wool by staple length and diameter ranging from prime downy soft baby alpaca those finest of under hairs not actually shorn from baby alpacas to the more robust guard hairs found on animals legs and undersides.
Baby alpaca vs cashmere.
Cashmere is much more prone to pilling due to its short length and delicate structure.
As can be inferred from the name the wool is originally from the kashmir region.
A sweater made from soft baby alpaca rivals cashmere fibre when it comes to softness and outdoes it when it comes to strength.
We all know that cashmere is a great product but how does it compare to something like alpaca wool.
Lastly there are many perks of alpaca over cashmere but the biggest is probably price.
Cashmere the manufacturing practices are very strict and carefully maintained to ensure the final product lives up to the hype of being ultra soft light warm and good value for the considerable money charged for it.
12 13 a cashmere turtleneck sweater can cost around 2 000.
Alpacas live in the wild mainly in the andes of peru while cashmere goats are bred on a massive scale in countries such as mongolia and china.
A sweater costing 150 to 200 pretty standard.
Second only to silk for strength alpaca is comparable to the luxurious softness of cashmere yet more durable and far more hard wearing than both.
Unlike cashmere alpaca is sometimes considered an outsider.
Cashmere has a long standing reputation for quality and softness.
Cashmere easily stretches and often clings to you.
A good quality cashmere travel shawl wrap will usually set you back between 200 300 where as our alpaca travel shawl wrap retails at 99.
Alpaca is much more resistant making this material excellent for travel wear.
It is just as warm and soft as cashmere but even more durable.
The family run italian brand has been creating high quality cashmere garments for more than 90 years.
Alpaca fleece contains no lanolin and is hypoallergenic.
Similar to cashmere alpaca is a natural fiber with a silky luxurious feel.
It is quite scarce and difficult to find which makes it quite expensive and valuable.
A baby cashmere coat will set.
A sweater made of classified super baby alpaca can rival its cashmere counterpart when it comes to softness and outdo it when it comes to strength.
Alpaca fibers are hollow with an insulating core that makes them both warm and breathable.
Cashmere fibres are four cm long whereas alpaca measure between eight to twelve cm.