When I was researching the life of Sir Titus Salt (the first person to commercially exploit alpaca). I tried to trace the sort of clothes that were made from alpaca back in the 1850's.
Having read several stories on alpaca breeders web sites about men's alpaca overcoats I was surprised to discover that the majority of alpaca was used to make ladies and children's clothes.

In my search I was fortunate enough to have access to The Museum of Costume in Bath. In the article on Sir Titus I used this alpaca jacket and skirt as an illustration.



The other alpaca clothes I found in the museums archive were laid out on tables by the curator for me to see and inspect so didn't look quite as interesting as the dress on a mannequin. But you do get a much better idea of the sheen from my photographs than the museum picture where the outfit is on a mannequin. You can see from these pictures why alpaca was sometimes described as silk for the price of cotton.










These alpaca garments are now over 150 years old and I was only allowed to touch them while wearing cotton gloves. Sadly, the museum archive has now been re-catalogued and fibre (wool, cotton, silk, alpaca and so forth) will no longer be part of the indexing system.
So I may well have been the last person able to search the archive by "alpaca" .....

Adrian Stewart