What Makes Our Fibres Special: A Comparison of Natural Materials

Before a cut is made, before a stitch is set, there is a choice: which fibre comes first? At Chirimoya, this is never a technical decision. It is a sensory one. We choose materials you feel before you understand them.

Our journey began in the coastal valleys of Peru, where we first touched Pima cotton. It led us to the high-altitude regions of the Andes, where the finest alpaca wool is sourced. And it brought us to artisans in the Amazon basin who draw colour from nature, as generations before them have done.

This is an honest look at the fibres we work with. What makes them remarkable — and where they reach their limits.

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Pima Cotton — And Why Not All Cotton Is Created Equal

Pima cotton belongs to the family of Extra-Long-Staple fibres, with individual strands measuring 35 to 43 millimetres in length. This may sound like a modest distinction, yet the hand tells the story at once. Longer fibres spin into finer, more uniform yarns. The result is a fabric that sits softer against the skin, resists pilling, and holds its shape for years.

Ordinary cotton — accounting for roughly 90 per cent of global production — produces fibres shorter than 28 millimetres. The difference between these and a Pima fibre does not show on a label. It shows in the wearing.

Our Peruvian Pima cotton grows in the coastal valleys of the Andes, where the interplay of coastal climate, mineral-rich soil, and hand-harvesting yields a fibre that feels silky even in its raw state. In our design studio in Ibagué, Colombia, it is crafted into the T-shirts and shirts for which Chirimoya has become known: ultra-soft, enduring, with a skin experience that does not diminish over time.

Yet Pima is not the only fine cotton in the world. How does it compare to Egyptian cotton, Supima, or the standard fibre? A closer look:

Pima and Supima are botanical cousins — both descend from the Gossypium barbadense plant. The difference lies in where they are grown and how they are processed. Egyptian Giza cotton is likewise an outstanding fibre, though quality can vary more widely, as the name carries less formal protection. We chose Peruvian Pima because the combination of fibre quality, hand-harvesting, and the connection to the people who cultivate it spoke to us most clearly.

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Baby Alpaca Wool — Light, Warm, and Remarkably Gentle

In the high-altitude regions of the Andes, above 3,500 metres, alpacas live in conditions that forge an extraordinary fibre. The extremes of temperature — fierce sun by day, frost by night — shape a fleece that is naturally thermoregulating, lightweight, and breathable.

The term "baby alpaca" does not refer to the animal's age, but to the fineness of the fibre: anything below 23 microns earns this designation. For reference, a human hair measures roughly 70 microns. Baby alpaca occupies a range that is barely perceptible against the skin — soft, without the faint itch some associate with wool.

What particularly drew us to our alpaca wool is the absence of lanolin. This makes it naturally hypoallergenic — a quality that neither cashmere nor merino can match in the same measure. For our knitwear collection — cardigans and jumpers designed to be worn directly against the skin — this was a decisive factor.

Yet no material is without its compromises. Alpaca wool is more susceptible to pilling than cashmere when cared for incorrectly. It asks for attention, for the right handling, to remain as beautiful years from now as it is today. This is why every knit piece we make comes with a care guide.

Cashmere is the finest of these three fibres, and rightly cherished as a luxury material. Yet its ecological record is increasingly strained: rising demand has led to overgrazing and desertification in Mongolia and China. Baby alpaca offers comparable softness with a considerably lighter ecological footprint — alpacas graze gently, require little water, and thrive in regions where other forms of agriculture would scarcely be possible.

Merino is an excellent material, and one we respect. For our purposes — luxury basics designed to be worn against the skin — we favour the hypoallergenic nature and lighter weight of alpaca fibre.

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What We Discovered With Natural Dyes

In the rainforests of the Amazon basin, artisans dye fabrics with pigments drawn from plants, bark, and earth — techniques rooted in pre-Columbian cultures and passed down through generations by word of mouth. When we first witnessed this process, it was not the colour that captivated us. It was the act itself.

Our Natural Dye line is made entirely by hand. Each piece is dyed individually, and no two results are exactly alike. This is not a flaw — it is the nature of the process. Natural dyes respond to temperature, humidity, the composition of the water. What emerges is singular.

We wish to be candid: natural dyes have their limits. The colour palette is narrower than with synthetic methods. Light-fastness varies — some tones shift over time, growing softer, more weathered. And the production is slower, more demanding, not scalable in any industrial sense.

And because working with these artisans helps preserve a body of knowledge that might otherwise fade from the world.

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How We Choose Our Materials

Not every fibre that delights us finds its way into our collection. Our selection begins with one question: how does this material feel against the skin?

The skin experience always comes first. Then durability — a material must grow more beautiful over years, not less — and provenance. We work with fibres whose journey we can trace: from field or herd to our design studio in Ibagué, Colombia. This transparency is not a marketing decision. It is the condition upon which we stand behind every piece we make.

Ethical sourcing, for us, is not a category to be ticked. It is the way we work. We know the herders in the high-altitude Andes who source our alpaca fibre. We know the fields in the coastal valleys of Peru where our Pima cotton is hand-picked. And we know the artisans in the Amazon basin who create our natural dyes.

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Fibres That Endure a Lifetime

The choice of material is not a detail. It is the foundation of everything we do. A T-shirt of Peruvian Pima cotton that grows softer after a hundred washes. A cardigan of baby alpaca wool that warms in winter without weighing you down. A shirt whose colour was born in the Amazon and, with time, develops a character entirely its own.

We create clothing that lasts a lifetime — not only in its quality, but in its meaning. Because the finest materials are those that foster connection: from the clothes on your skin to the memories made while wearing them.

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Frequently Asked Questions