﻿ Amano - Vicuna


The Vicuna lives in the High Andes as a free and wild animal, and is one of two wild South American camelides, the other being the Guanaco.

This graceful, fragile-looking, elegant and extremely agile animal walks silently and alert through the Andean highlands, almost as if waiting for something extraordinary to happen.

Vicuna is considered the most luxurious fibre in the world, due to its softness and high quality. The animal only produces small amounts of extremely fine wool, due to the fact that it can only be shorn every three years. When knitted together, the Vicuna’s wool is very soft and warm.

The high value of the Vicuna’s fibre dates back to ancient times, where it was considered a symbol of nobility and the fibres were only woven by the “Virgins of the Sun”. In fact, for the Incas it was considered against the law for anyone but royalty to wear Vicuna garments. It is the ultimate gift from the Inca gods.

Today, the Vicuna is the national animal of Peru and is represented on the Peruvian coat of arms.



Is sorted and dehaired entirely by hand in Andean communities in order to process the noble fibers.

It is available only in natural colors and for the first time now available for hand-knitting.

This legendary animal with its beautiful coat of magical finesse was indiscriminately hunted until the end of the past century. A population that numbered more than two million animals at the time of the Incas was reduced to around 5000 by the 1960s.

Just as the threat of extinction seemed imminent, the world community began to react.

Andean communities supported by the Peruvian government took urgent motion in order to protect the Vicuna, while conservation associations for the protection of endangered species imposed sanctions against the poaching of the Vicuna. Year after year, the situation improved and in the cold and inhospitable highland of the Andes, the Vicuna flock started to increase.

As a result, around 200.000 Vicuñas inhabited Peru by 2014.

With its gold-colored fibres, the Vicuna blends-in with the landscape perfectly, which protects it from its predators.

It is considered the finest fibre in the world that is produced by any mammal. The Vicuna is sheared after rounding it up according to a very ancient and traditional technique called Chaccu.

No harm is done to the animal. After shearing, it is set free.

In recent decades, the Andean communities, private companies and the government have managed to generate and enforce appropriate legislation for the protection of this invaluable species.

90% of the worldwide Vicuna population lives in Peru.