ZIBELINE: a soft lustrous wool fabric with mohair, alpaca, or camel's hair
Though zibeline is woven from the hair of alpacas, camels, or Angora goats, its name actually traces back to a Slavic word for the sable, a small mammal related to the weasel. The Slavic term was adopted into Old Italian, and from there it passed to Middle French, than on to English in the late 1600s. English "zibeline" originally referred to the sable or its fur, but in the 1890s it developed a second sense, applying to a soft, smooth, slightly furry material woven from a mixture of animal hairs. It's especially suited to women's suits and coats. According to a fashion columnist writing in the December 6, 1894, issue of Vogue, it also makes "an exceedingly pretty, warm theatre cloack, not too fine to be crushed into the small one-chair space."
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