The highlight of New York Fashion Week for sustainable style aficionados was the SANS show, which took place at the Daryl Roth theatre in Union Square.
Critics loved SANS’ Fall Collection of eco-friendly fashion, which utilizes all organic and sustainable materials such as bamboo, tussah silk, and organic cotton, wool and alpaca, in innovative, deconstructed shapes.



Its quite interesting how these alpaca fashion articles are cropping up more and more frequently in the news. This week is China Fashion week in Beijing and I am expecting there to be several Chinese designers working with alpaca.

Meanwhile back to reality on the alpaca farm and today I will be getting some of the male alpacas into the barn to take weights, trim toenails and check out their body scores. What is body scoring I hear someone ask.....

Body scoring by hand involves feeling along the spine of the alpaca towards the shoulders and determining how much fat lies on either side of the spine. If on either side it feels severely hollow then that animal is too thin. At the other extreme if the back is almost flat due to the build up of fat between the spine and ribs then the animal is too fat. A very thin alpaca is given a body score of 1 and a very fat alpaca a score of 5. The ideal score depends on age and sex but should be in the range 2.5 to 3.5. This skill is easily acquired and to become proficient all you will need to do is feel a good many alpacas and compare your scores with an experienced farmer to makes sure you are on target.

Adrian Stewart - clcik here to go to Mulberry Alpacas

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