Vitale Barberis Canonico selects only the best Australian merino wool for its collections. Australian merino fibres give a unique performance to the fabric. It is white, soft and valued above all others and, when at its best, can even compare with cashmere.

Merino sheep moved from Asia Minor to Spain and were later introduced into Australia where this hardy, prolific sheep is now considered the most important breed worldwide. Vitale Barberis Canonico is one of the biggest buyers of merino wool and also owns two farms in Australia.

Mohair, a fibre with a pearly, almost steely brilliance, is used in large quantities for summer garments, but also in other blends to increase warmth and decrease weight. Vitale Barberis Canonico selects high-quality, South African raw materials.

Mohair was known in biblical times and came to South Africa in the 1800s where rearing and selection of the Angora goat became gradually more intensive. Today it is largely reared on the plains of the Eastern Cape, where Vitale Barberis Canonico selects its raw materials.

Attention must be paid to the lack of coarse hair content, or of dead or medullated fibres, as these cannot be dyed and the result for the end product (particularly visible in dark colours) is different coloured stripes which have a serious effect on the finished piece. For these reasons, we always use pure Cape mohair of finenesses between 23 and 32.5 microns.

Cashmere is made from the hair of a breed of hardy goats mainly from central Asia. Their hair is smooth, very soft and silky, and cashmere is much sought after by the textile industry. Vitale Barberis Canonico selects only the purest underdown fibres from China for its fabrics.

The goats are hardy and resistant to temperature fluctuations. They are of medium size, weighing between 40 – 60 kg with an open fleece of long, relatively coarse hair, whilst the underdown, extremely highly valued and much sought after by the textile industry, is smooth, very soft and almost silky. The highest quality is generally white, although brown, grey or reddish-brown tendencies also exist.