The South American vicuña llama provides the silky shining wool for this noble fabric. A llama can produce enough wool for just one jumper each year. Despite being very fine and light, the alpaca wool is hard-wearing and elastic. The individual fibres of alpaca fur are hollow inside. This makes them extraordinarily good at controlling heat. It is almost exclusively made into top quality wool fabrics for ladies’ coats and dresses. The natural shades of alpacawool are retained, as are the natural oils, and for this reason alpaca is often described as “waxed” wool.

Washing: Alpaca can be safely washed in a Miele washing machine, using the handwashable Woollens programme.

Drying: Alpaca garments can be fluffed up in your Miele tumble dryer using the Woollens handcare programme. They should then be laid out flat and left to dry at room temperature.

Extra tip: The WoolCare liquid detergent from Miele's CareCollection, with its fibre protection components against felting and its colour-protection formula for brilliant colours, ensures gentle cleaning and care.