Vicuna is the fibre the Incas reserved for royalty, and the maths still holds: one wild animal yields just a couple of hundred grams every two years, hand-harvested under CITES protection after hunting crashed the population to a few thousand. Loro Piana was one of three companies licensed to work it legally in Peru in 1994. That scarcity, not a logo, is what puts a coat past the price of a small car.
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The post, as it ran
01VICUNA IS COMBED FROM A WILD ANDEAN RELATIVE OF THE
LLAMA AT ROUGHLY 12 MICRONS, FINER THAN CASHMERE,
AND IT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE LEGAL WOOL THERE IS.
02THE ANIMAL WAS HUNTED SO HARD FOR THAT FLEECE IT
NEARLY WENT EXTINCT, DOWN TO A FEW THOUSAND BY THE 1960S.
03IT IS PROTECTED NOW UNDER CITES, AND EACH VICUNA CAN
BE SHORN JUST ONCE EVERY OTHER YEAR.
04LORO PIANA HAS BEEN THE FIBRE'S LICENSED CHAMPION IN
PERU SINCE 1994, WHICH IS THE UNGLAMOROUS REASON A
SINGLE VICUNA OVERCOAT COSTS TENS OF THOUSANDS.