Until yesterday I had never heard of kirgyz. I deliberately did not give any enlightenment concerning kirgyz. I wanted to see if anyone would contact me to see if kirgyz was a figment of my imagination. Two individuals did inquire- so I thought I should  clarify it for those others who wondered but did’t want to admit they didn’t know. The kirgyz is a half goat half ram with a wonderful soft cashmere like coat.  It has more sheen than cashmere- some think sheen is good and some think sheen is bad. The hair is gathered by combing with an iron comb.  Another fibre, which I did not mention yesterday, is “lurex”. Lurex is the regitered tradename for a metallic yarn- a synthetic fibre that is coated with aluminium. Both kirgyz and lurex strike me as creattions of Dr. Seuss. ( Ted Geisel was a customer.) I wonder what surprises the next price list I receive will have?

Some time I come across something that has me shake my head and accept the fact that the world has passed me bye. Today was such a day.  I received a new price list from one of our top cloth suppliers, who I shall not name.  The 10 page price list had only a few offerings at less than $100 per yard - and those cloths were, with two exceptions, cotton.  There were clothes priced at $2580, $2,250, $1340, $1,195, $980, $940, $795, $695, $595, and $495 per yard.  These prices made the $250, $190, and $173 dollar cloths on the list seem “cheap”. When I started working in 1960 you could buy fine English worsteds for $30 per yard. Price was not the only surprise.  Cloth composition was sprinkled with fibres that I thought must have been made up by an imaginative copy writer. The cloth priced at $2580 per yard is so priced because it has 20% guanaco. At first I thought guanaco must be spun guano.  I was wrong. It ends up there is actually an animal in South America - a Guanaco - that is a lama like animal in the camel family.  The Guanaco has a nasty disposition. It spits and kicks. It is very dificult to harvest Guanaco hair- hence its dear price.  The $2,250 cloth has some qiviuk ( although there is no “u” after the “q”, this spelling is correct ). Research revealed that qiviuk is the under wool of the musk ox. Every spring the musk ox sheds the qiviuk. I quess the fact that it is much easier to collect the qiviuk, which is on the ground, than it is to comb out the guanaco explains the $330 per yard difference in the cloth. Some of the other high ticket clothes are cashmere, pashmina, super 200’s and combinations of all of the aforementioned plus mohair, silk, mink, kid mohair, and kirgyz.  We live and learn,