Softer, lighter and fluffier than the finest cashmere I’ve ever felt is – would you believe – wool made from the fine undercoat fibers of wild goats from Kyrgystan, in the foothills of the Himalayas . It’s called Yangir. And then there’s the wool made from baby camel hair in Mongolia which it’s said “drives you to sin”   They’re the latest innovation and product of eight generation French company Brun de Vian-Tiran, founded in 1808, and  based in one of my new favorite towns — L’Isle Sur La Sorgue in Luberon, Provence. There’s a museum you can visit and the products are sold online.

The baby camel’s hair product was just introduced for throws, but later this year will make its way into shawls to be sold at Bon Marche in Paris and online in 2020. The making of this luxury product along with other of their fine wool blankets, coverlets, duvets, rugs, throws,  scarves and shawls, is a fascinating one as they do all stages of production, 15 in the case of blankets.

In the case of the camel’s hair, they went into partnership with a community in Mongolia to raise the herd. It was only by chance that the NGO TAKH contacted Pierre and Jean-Louis Brun about their baby camel wool from Mongolian herders. No one suspected yet that this encounter would bring them to the limits of the Gobi desert. Immediately, Pierre and Jean-Louis, 7th and 8th generations of the company, identified an exceptional finesse and  committed to purchasing the future crops and to dedicate a collection to this region’s camel hair.  In other cases they source the wools and woolen type fibers from 20 countries and all fibers and processes are sustainable.

Always innovating they produced the first mohair blanket on the European continent in 1961. The firm manages to evolve as it’d have to in today’s environment. They hire industrial designers and  have a stylist to come up with fashion forward colors, patterns and styles.

It’s possible to visit the spacious shop and enjoy an on site museum about the production process.

While I was speaking with Jean-Louis I asked how to best care for fine wool. Here are his tips:

Our shawls, which are produced with great care, require particular attention so that you can lastingly enjoy their softness. Being made of wool or of cashmere they must be dry-cleaned as indicated by the care symbol on the product’s label.

However, if your washing machine is reliable, you can wash you shawl following closely the underneath instructions:

• Select the wool cold washing program
• Wash the shawl alone or together with woolen items of the same colour
• Use a small quantity of a special wool detergent and avoid fabric softeners
• Take the shawl out of the machine without twisting it
• Make it dry flat (a dryer use is unsuitable) away from a direct light

For more information and to order, click here.