Every synthetic garment ever created still exists in some form, haunting our beautiful planet.*
Wool is natural, renewable, biodegradable, and proudly holds the title of the world’s most recycled apparel fibre. A reminder that we should all ‘Check It’s Wool’.
Following the retention of HM King Charles III as Patron, the Campaign for Wool celebrates Wool Month with a series of UK-wide events throughout the entire month of October. The Campaign’s 2024 mission is to encourage consumers to ‘Check It’s Wool’.
Not only are wool garments timeless, and effective in keeping the cold out, but knitwear and coats help us to feel ‘emotionally cosy and warm’ and envelop us to brave the winter months.
With over 1,000 Supporters involved in the Campaign and a ‘new look’ website, (a platform dedicated to sharing incredible stories about innovation, products and craftsmanship and spotlighting some of the wool industry’s unsung heroes), it is the perfect platform to find the best winter woollies!
From chunky cardigans, luxurious fine gauge next to skin knits, sweaters, cardigans, overcoats, tailored jackets and separates, scarves, hats, womenswear, menswear and children’s products, web users can discover a plethora of the latest new wool designs and information on leading brands working with the best quality wools. From lamb’s wool to a variety of different sheep’s wool, there are many options to choose from to suit your lifestyle and activities. Wool’s from British Wool and finer fibre wool from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia offer many product attributes and variety of products for wearing, craft projects and around the home. The Campaign this year wanted to highlight the many, varied micron thicknesses of different wool fibres and softness associated with each. Highlighting that wool fibres, no matter what their coarseness, each have a purpose whether it is a 40+ micron Welsh Mountain or Herdwick fleece encapsulated in a Solidwool chair or table to a robust coarse fibre suitable for Harris Tweed Hebrides outerwear coatings to the fineness and supreme softness of New Zealand, South African and Australian Merino for next to skin products, down as fine as 14.5 micron in a Muugi t-shirt.
Check out brands including Aubin, Brora, Charl Knitwear, Glencroft, Johnstons of Elgin, John Smedley, Navygrey, Jaeger, M&S, Smalls Merino, and Walker Slater, who have all launched new designs to celebrate Wool Month.
With a heritage collection launched by Aubin in British Wool, Johnstons of Elgin superfine and chunky Merino knits and a range of mens and womens Balmacaan coats, with a generous cut allowing for considered layering underneath, perfect for autumnal and winter days over chunky sweaters, hoodies, and tailored suiting. The first Balmacaan Coat was created in the 1880s for a country estate near their Scottish weaving mill. Brora will release a limited-edition piece designed in collaboration with Duncan of Jordanstone College. Made from sustainable wool, this limited edition piece highlights wool’s natural benefits, and the winning design was from
Abbey McGovern, who took an innovative approach to the brief and demonstrated outstanding pattern development, inspired by Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, a Scottish artist known for his sculptures and graphic works, widely considered one of the pioneers of pop art. She not only drew inspiration from his creations but also explored his Italian heritage.
John Smedley have announced its new circularity project, launched to align with Wool Month, this latest initiative in low-impact manufacturing utilises recycled Merino yarns. This regenerated wool will be incorporated into all of John Smedley’s forthcoming collections from October 2024 onward. The regenerated Merino is created in partnership with iinouiio – a Yorkshire-based textile recycling mill located 50 miles from John Smedley’s headquarters in Matlock, Derbyshire. Here, waste yarns from John Smedley’s own production process are collected from the factory floor, sent to iinouiio, and turned into new fibres. iinouiio shreds the wool back to its original form, blends it with virgin Merino, and re-spins it into new yarns: the ratio of waste to new wool in this regenerated fibre is a 50/50 split. So far, 335kg of waste yarn has been saved from the scrap heap and repurposed.
Far from being a modern, eco invention, recycling Merino waste is a traditional technique that was once known as ‘shoddy’ manufacturing. It fell out of favour in the industry as supply chains became global and production was predominantly offshored. Through this ongoing project iinouiio rightfully brings back an ancient practice and conscious craftsmanship from John Smedley, Eco-Luxe and a special commission from Anderson & Sheppard to create one of their exclusive House Tweeds using woollen cloth offcuts from their cutting room floor. Su Thomas at Eco Luxe worked with iinouiio and Brierley Bros, in West Yorkshire, to produce a textured, multi-coloured yarn which was woven into a unique design by Sam Goates at Woven In The Bone in Buckie, Scotland.
Pop up locations include Charl Knitwear, Navygrey and weaving workshops at Holland & Sherry. And for interior and lifestyle, the Campaign has a stand at Decorex A35 to highlight a House of Wool and all the natural benefits wool can offer in and around the home.
Check out campaignforwool.org for further details.
For this year’s Campaign, the call to action is to ‘Check It’s Wool’ encouraging shoppers to make positive, conscious natural fibre choices when choosing the products they want.
Wool is one of the best natural insulators, and in cold snaps it keeps the body warm and thermoregulates, as it adapts to the wearer. When worn next to the skin, wool works as a dynamic buffer in the micro-climate between the fabric and the skin, regulating humidity and temperature. Thanks to its hygroscopic abilities, wool constantly reacts to changes in body temperature, maintaining its wearer’s thermophysical comfort in cold and warm weather. Recently published research has also shown that wearing superfine wool next to the skin can be therapeutic and beneficial for eczema sufferers, challenging misconceptions that all wool is prickly and itchy.
Choosing wool not only helps to protect the planet through the reduction in man-made fibres that ultimately go into landfills and the oceans but will also help safeguard the planet for future generations. Wool biodegrades in soil, adding nutrients back to the Earth, and it also biodegrades in the ocean and water. Therefore, wool does not impact the planet through microfibre and plastic pollution.
The Campaign believes that collectively by Choosing Wool, that we can all make a difference.
With thanks to The Pollen Estate
Keep in the loop with our latest news and campaigns
Keep in the loop with our latest news and campaigns
