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Comment by Gimpei | Hacker News Reader

The value in the 9K sweater is not in the material. You can get just as nice sweaters for a lot lot less money. Probably 20X less will get you a very nice, very well made, very soft sweater. The value of the sweater is in the brand. Somehow Loro Piano has found out how to get people to agree to pay 9K for a damn sweater. If they can do it with Vicuna, they’ll find another material to do it with as well.

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The value of the $9k vicuña sweater is in the material. If you just want very soft, cashmere and baby alpaca are nearly as soft and considerably cheaper. People get vicuña fiber garments because it's rare, it was the fiber of royalty, and it's arguably the finest natural fiber in existence.

Have you actually stepped into a Loro Piana store and felt their cashmere? It is otherworldly. I have some degree of experience in picking out high-end cashmere, telling the overpriced scams apart from the legit ones, and Loro Piana is definitely a noticeable level above the others.

I have skin that is hypersensitive to cashmere. Most high end cashmere itches for me, but not Loro Piana cashmere. There are significant differences in cashmere fiber length, diameter, etc.

All the differences in the world don't make that little amount of animal hair worth $9k. It's the value adding... mostly via brand development. I mean it says right there in the article that it's worth $280.

BTW why are you talking about cashmere when this is about Vicuna hair?

Isn't the raw hair worth $280 but it still needs woven into fibers and then turned into clothing? Definitely not $9k but the vicuna clothes for sale in Peru (not a fancy brand name) are still significantly more expensive than other fiber. I think the cheapest sweaters from baby alpaca in Cusco are about $300.

$300 sounds right... shipping is negligible so 3 times that in the US... around $1000 would be about right. The other $8000 is just for the brand.

Archibald sells a vicuna sweater for $3.1k, and they say the at cost price is $1.9k [1]

Given maybe $500-800 in production cost, shipping, duties etc, the cost is probably $1k. It is significantly more expensive than other fibers.

1. https://www.archibaldlondon.com/us/collection?category=vicun...

I’ve seen a 40 meter skein selling for as much as $600. A sweater might be 800m-1600m of yarn. But assuming $300, that’s easily $6k in yarn.

This is false, it's a mix, other houses sell vicuna sweaters, in fact you can buy them from unknown sources, even the raw material itself and have someone knit it for you, it is extremely expensive however you acquire it.

The house adds value to the material, as with any high-end producer like Brunello, Zegna, and the next one to pop-off Rubinacci (watch this space).

Well now I’m headed to Mr Porter to make some mistakes… I guess that’s what I get for opening this thread.

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