Where does Alpaca come from?

Alpaca comes from Peru, the Andes, where it dates to Antiquity.

Plate No. 113fabric

One of the many natural colors of the undyed alpaca fleece.

First documented: Antiquity
Origin: the Andes, Peru
Fiber: alpaca fiber
Weave: woven or knitted, from alpaca fleece
Family: twills

Plate No. 113 · fabric

Alpaca

Alpaca is cloth from the fleece of the alpaca, a domesticated camelid of the high Andes bred for fiber for thousands of years. Unlike sheep's wool it carries no lanolin, so it is hypoallergenic and needs less processing, and it grows in a wide range of natural colors from white through fawn to deep brown and black. The fleece is warm, light, and lustrous, finer and stronger than ordinary wool. In Inca society the finest alpaca and vicuna cloth was reserved for the nobility, and the animal remains central to the economy of the Peruvian and Bolivian highlands.

Named for

From the Spanish alpaca, taken from the Aymara allpaqa, the name of the animal.

Common questions

What is Alpaca made of?: Alpaca is cloth from the fleece of the alpaca, a domesticated camelid of the high Andes bred for fiber for thousands of years. It is traditionally made of alpaca fiber.
Where does Alpaca come from?: Alpaca comes from Peru, the Andes, where it dates to Antiquity.
What is Alpaca named after?: From the Spanish alpaca, taken from the Aymara allpaqa, the name of the animal.