Rs 6.82 lakh for a single metre: The world’s most expensive fabric comes to India

A fabric so rare because it comes from an animal that produces only a small amount of fleece every year, in just one corner of the globe. So special, that ancient Incas revered it as the ‘fabric of the gods’. Extremely light and fine, consumerist society today celebrates it as the rarest, most expensive fibre available in the market.

And it’s just made an appearance in India.

Vicuna fabric, named after the animal it is sourced from, has begun retailing in Indian cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, courtesy of the 180-year-old French luxury fabric brand Dormeuil which brought it to India for this winter.

The cost is a whopping Rs 6.82 lakh upward for a single metre!

“India has a great potential for luxury fabrics – the cornerstone of a fine suit. Dormeuil sees immense potential for it to expand its business and grow it multifold times,” said Richard Boide, managing director of Dormeuil.

Vicuna is a small type of llama that is found only in the Andes mountains of South America, especially in Peru. It produces a very small amount of fleece, the limited availability only increasing its value, besides the fact that it is extremely light and fine, and makes the perfect woolen outfit for the winter.

In India, Vicuna fabric is retailed through the menswear tailoring brand P.N.Rao. Also on offer are pashmina and gold-soaked fabrics, again newly launched from Dormeuil.

Vicuna is also produced sustainably through a strict protocol ensuring the protection of the animals as well as the lands on which they graze, on the high plateaus of Peru, said Dormeuil in a statement.

“Dormeuil’s vicuna fabric is targeting affluent connoisseur that understands the uniqueness of what he is buying and is about to wear. By its incredible nature, the Vicuna fibre makes a very light but incredible warm fabric, which will be the perfect outfit to wear at winter parties or to take with you to face the cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere during your next trip to Paris, NYC or London,” a Dormeuil spokesperson told THE WEEK.