Desert gold: Caruso turns camel yarn into tailoring treasure

While most of the world’s tailoring brands are investing in cutting-edge technologies to innovate their suiting selections, Caruso has teamed up with fibre experts Loro Piana to harness one of the oldest natural yarn sources: the Camelus bactrianus, otherwise known as the two-humped camel. These Gobi Desert nomads, who helped define the Silk Road, in the process earning them the moniker ‘ships of the desert’, have long been recognised for the golden hues and thermostatic properties of their coats, attuned to their Mongolian environs.

The Italian brand’s resulting ‘Gobigold’ yarn brings new lustre to the term ‘camel coat’, originally worn by polo players between chukkas. With thanks to Loro Piana’s spinning expertise, the rare fibre, which is sometimes mixed with Super 170’s merino wool, has been used to weave cashmere-soft flannel suiting, jumpers and coats for A/W16. As for the animals themselves, they are free to roam in the wild, but are regularly fed and sheared by the textile giant.

Originally featured in the October 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (*211)