Vicuña, with papers

Vicuña is the quietest superlative in the cloth books. The fibre comes from a small wild camelid of the high Andes, shorn only once every two to three years, and it is finer than any cashmere — which is why the mills that handle it issue a certificate with the cloth itself.

This commission put it to work: a long, fitted double-breasted overcoat in warm camel vicuña, cut 6×2 with broad peak lapels. Dark horn buttons, flapped pockets and turnback cuffs keep the outside sober; the lining is a forest-green satin that shows only when the coat moves. The Scabal certificate stays with the coat.

The lesson of the commission is the house’s usual one — the rarer the cloth, the plainer the cutting should be. A fibre like this needs nothing added: a clean shoulder, a shaped waist, and the nerve to leave it alone.

The finished coat is in the gallery, photographed as it left the board.