Chinchilla

Chinchilla is a fiber / fabric soft, dense fur made from the Chinchilla animal, a small rodent slightly larger than the average squirrel and native to the Andes. The fur is generally of a charcoal grey colour. By the end of the 19^thCentury Chinchillas became very rare, as they were being hunted for their fur. Most of the Chinchillas used by the fur industry nowadays are bred in captivity and farmed. Because of the large moral implications, it is quite difficult to get hold of real Chinchilla fur and a faux version has been manufactured. The term ‘Chinchilla’ is now used for any fabric that resembles Chinchilla fur such as a thick, weft-pile fabrics that are double faced and have long floats of soft twist yarns or fabrics that have surface curls and were made to replicate and replace real Chinchilla fur.