Q&A with Wallace Sewell

The Campaign for Wool spoke to the team at Wallace Sewell to discuss the history behind the interiors brand and how wool has become the main fibre in their products.

Please tell us a little about yourselves and how your business/designs/products utilise wool?

Wallace Sewell is a highly individual woven textile design studio, established by Harriet Wallace-Jones and Emma Sewell. The company’s motivation is to create innovative woven fabrics exploiting industrial techniques, working closely with the textile industry in the UK to produce pieces including scarves and furnishing products, which sell to stores worldwide. Over 80% of the products made each year utilise wool either as the main fibre or proportion of the fabric content.

 What makes you choose wool over other fibres? What is your favourite thing about wool?

Wallace Sewell chooses wool for the majority of their products as it is a premium yet affordable fibre. It is highly versatile, as it can be soft or dry in it’s finished feel. It can be dyed into vibrant shades and also be milled (felted) to create a wide variety of finishes from heavy-duty felts to delicate yet stable cloths. It can keep you warm or cool and it’s natural bounciness means it resists creasing and recovers well from being folded.

It’s natural properties of water resistance, flame retardancy coupled with it’s strength mean it is also used for best quality moquette fabric for public transport.

By what means do you source your wool?

Wallace Sewell sources its wool yarn direct from British yarn companies and suppliers.

What does the Campaign for Wool mean to you?

It is great that the Campaign for Wool is broadening awareness of the fact that wool is a fantastic fibre and highlighting that it can compete in a modern world with man-made fibres.

The interiors landscape is forever changing, what does 2014/15 hold for you as a brand?

Wallace Sewell aims to broaden its range of interior products to offer more accessible pieces whilst developing their new direction into fabric by the metre.

Fabric technologies, particularly those using wool have advanced so rapidly over the last few years, has this affected your trade and work?

Not noticeably.

How does using woollen cloths differ to other man-made materials?

It can be dyed into vibrant shades and also be milled (felted) to create a wide variety of finishes from heavy-duty felts to delicate yet stable cloths.

What demand have you seen from your customers with regards to favouring wool over synthetic fibres?

Currently we only offer cloths in natural fibres, mostly wool, but customers always appreciate the softness of our woollen fabrics.

Are there any plans to introduce more wool in to your collection?

We currently use such a high percentage of wool (over 80%) in our collections and will maintain this level.

To find out more about Wallace Sewell visit http://www.wallacesewell.com/

Wallace Sewell are taking part in the Wool Collection: Interiors at Southwark Cathedral from 5th-12th October during Wool Week. To find out more about the collection visit http://www.campaignforwool.org/news-item/the-campaign-for-wool-interiors-collection/