Each year the Italian suitmaker holds a contest to find the best merino wool in the world (the prize is the fleece’s equivalent weight in gold). Zegna is — finally — creating a blend of all the winning fleeces since 2002 with which to make twenty custom suits, retailing for $22,500 a piece. Each apparently takes over eighteen hours to make and the help of 330 people. The wool is supposed to be one of the lightest fabrics ever, with fibers measuring about 11.1 microns, which is about a tenth the width of a strand of human hair. So. How thick are your suit fibers? [T Magazine/NYT]
