This precious fibre is obtained from the fleece of the Hircus goat, which has been bred by Asian populations for over 7,500 years in the most inaccessible areas of the Himalayas. Today this species can be found in the Xinjiang region as well as in Tibet and Mongolia.
The Hircus goat’s hair has been processed since the Great Mogul epoch. It can be white, the most valuable color, or various natural tones ranging from beige to brown.
The long and rough hair hides a soft, warm and precious undercoat called duvet. Such undercoat allows the animal to maintain steady and constant body temperature even in the cold climatic conditions of the Asiatic mountains. The duvet, gathered in Spring, is collected by combing the animal. Each goat produces a few ounces of fibres per year whose diameter is about 15 microns.
Kid Cashmere is an excellent yarn that is obtained from the underfleece of Hircus baby goats only during their first year of life.
The natural shedding allows to collect the precious fibre, very exclusive and extremely light, fully respecting the animals and the environment.
The raw material is then expertly processed, drawing on the experience and high technology of the Colombo tradition, in order to obtain the Kid Cashmere yarns. Unique, exclusive and very soft knitwear items are then created for both men's and women's collections.
It is a long and fascinating process of transformation of one of the rarest and most precious noble fibres that represent true excellence.
KID WOOL is one of the rarest and most precious fibres in nature. It is the result of the research and selection of Lanificio Colombo, among the finest wools in the world: only 12.8 microns.
It is a philosophy that expresses Colombo's devotion to the research of the most noble and precious fibres while fully respecting the animals, the environment and the people. These values, transferred and shared with a small group of Merino breeders, have made it possible to reach a great goal: KID WOOL 12.8 microns.
The properties of this rare and valuable fibre are lightness, softness and natural thermoregulation which, thanks to the density of the fibres, is particularly functional even in very different climatic conditions. The garments are very unique and exclusive for their handfeel and weight, among the lightest in the world.
Guanaco is the South American camelidae with greater ability to adapt to various environmental conditions. It can be found from the Peruvian plateaus to the Strait of Magellan. This animal was the source of maintenance in the Land of Fire, where it has grown without causing the actual desertification which is imputable to sheep farms introduced by the Hispanics in 1500. Gifted with natural graceful movements and haughty beauty, in ancient times it was considered a mythical animal, playing a fundamental role in the Pre-Hispanic society. Thanks to the introduction of special systems of shearing and releasing the animal back into the wild, its hair is now used to manufacture textiles of the highest quality. Extraordinarily fine, its fibres range from a thickness of 13.5 to 14.5 microns. After shearing, which happens once every 2 years, the hair is separated to eliminate thicker fibres and impurities thus obtaining a lightweight, warmly coloured tuft similar to vicuña.
Vicuña is the smallest member of the Camelidae family (guanaco, llama, alpaca) and lives in the wild on the Cordillera of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. In ancient times it was considered a gift from Inti, the Incan god of the sun who could melt snow and change it into streams to fertilize the soil. The vicuña embodied the divine thanks for the presents the Incan people made to the beneficent Inti. Only the royal family was allowed to wear the precious fibre and, still today, deeply-rooted legends in the Andean countries abound regarding the magic properties of the most honoured vicuña. Vicuña’s wool is the finest fibre which can be processed, with an average diameter of 12-13 microns. An adult vicuña can produce only 250 grams of wool every two years. Its coat is the softest, shiniest and warmest in the world. It is usually of a reddish-brown colour while the white or albino Vicuña is extremely rare.
This animal is protected by Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), an international agreement that was signed by numerous countries in Washington in 1973 with the goal of regulating the trade of fauna and flora at risk of extinction. While fully respecting these safeguards, Lanificio Colombo uses this fibre to create unique and prestigious garments.
Camel belongs to the Camelidae Gray family and includes two sub-species: one with one hump, the dromedary, very common in Africa and Arabia and the other with two humps, precisely called camel, i.e. the Camelus Bactrianus that lives in the very cold climates of Mongolia and China. The Bactrianus has an undercoat, called duvet, that is very similar to the coat of cashmere goats. It is very soft and fine, with high thermic properties; its medium diameter is 18 microns and the best product can be found in China. The most common colour is reddish brown; the white coat, called albino and also described by Marco Polo, is the most prestigious as well as the rarest. The best duvet is obtained from the younger animals, the baby camels, only during their first years of life.
YANGIR is a family of fabrics created from the precious fibres of the Siberian Ibex, an animal that lives up to 5700 meters of altitude in the Himalayas, in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia and Kazakhstan, and in Kyrgyzstan.
Its soft and glossy undercoat has a natural golden colour and fibres measuring 13.5 microns, with an extremely limited availability.
Lanificio Luigi Colombo, drawing from its experience and skill in spinning and processing precious fibres, highlights the qualities of YANGIR in fabrics that offer unparalleled softness and sheen.
YANGIR can thus be considered the new frontier of timeless luxury.
