SWEATER WEATHER:

CASHMERE, ALPACA and merino wool. Come winter, these are the fibers that blend practicality with prestige. This season, however, a more exotic, high-status newcomer is turning the heads of adventurous sweater-wearers: Himalayan yak.

Similar in many ways to cashmere, yak is warm and light, prized both for its softness and its durability. "Yak is really interesting," said Luca Berga, merchandising director for Italian company Slowear, whose brand Incotex has been using yak for several years now. "It has the same performance as cashmere but a completely different story."

That story begins with altitude. Both the yak and the cashmere goat hail from the same harsh mountain terrain of the Himalayas, but the yak lives at higher levels and has developed an extremely thick and warm undercoat to withstand the crueler chill. While cashmere fiber measures between 14.5 and 17 microns, yak fiber averages a beefy 19 to 20 microns.

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