CAMEL HAIR

As luxurious as cashmere but more resistant to wear and tear, camel hair comes from the Bactrian camel. Unlike other subspecies, these camels found in Turkey, Siberia, and the Mongol Steppes have long hair.  

The animals have two types of hair that lend themselves to different uses. Where the outer, ‘guard’ hair is thick and coarse, the undercoat keeps the animal warm in a place less directly touched by weather. If the ‘guard’ hair suits carpets and interior fabrics, this soft hair is used for garments. 

The fabric asks for a slow process. Hair is gathered as it falls rather than sheared - it is collected in the spring. The coarse outer hair is removed, reducing the yield by half.

Like most luxury fabrics, camel hair comes in three grades, determined by the fineness and shade of the hair. Coats made from camel hair typically use ‘high-grade’ camel hair: a soft, tan fabric.

Camel hair affords the warmth of wool without its weight, the luxury of cashmere without its fragility. It also elides cashmere’s glow: camel hair is matte.

The use of camel hair for clothing is ancient. In the Bible, St John the Baptist is described as ‘clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey’ (Mark 1:6). Today, mixed with silk or cotton, camel hair is used in suiting and knitwear.  

It was first a symbol of wealth and distinction among the wealthy: carpet weaving used it heavily. Resistant to piling, it lends itself both to frequent use and to ostentation. 

Beginning in the Renaissance and blossoming in the 19th century, camel hair was integrated into European garments. In the French market, the colonisation of Algeria gives rise to a greater use in camel hair. Its usage spreads, from clothing, to paintbrushes’ bristles.

Shortly after the first world war, the wider British market embraced camel hair as an overcoat fabric. In America, the camel coat was first the ‘polo coat’ or ‘wait coat’, named after its use in wrapping athletes between games. The coat spread to city use, and the fabric to jackets - single-breasted and double-breasted alike. Camel hair became an important part of student mythology: at Harvard and Oxford.  

Cinema followed closely. The most famous of polo coats, Richard Gere’s in American Gigolo, does not in fact appear in the film - remaining instead the object of an Armani photoshoot. Over a double-breasted charcoal suit in New York or atop wellies in England, camel hair transforms its luxury into glamour.