Wool Week 2014: Summary, Fashion Activity

Last week (5th-12th October 2014), London celebrated its fifth annual Wool Week. The Campaign for Wool looks forward to this week every year as it consistently presents a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with designers, exhibitors, students, retailers and wool enthusiasts to showcase the fantastic fibre that is wool.

Every year, new innovative products are created and it has been a pleasure to promote the versatility of wool via a collection of activities, galleries, workshops and displays. The response has been overwhelming. We have decided to create a summative wool week post to keep those who are new to CfW informed, and for pre existing friends entertained.

The Wool Ride:

To officially mark the start of Wool Week 2014, The Campaign for Wool alongisde over 300 cyclists wove a woolly trail through the streets of London on Sunday 5th October to celebrate everyone’s favourite natural fibre. Hundreds of people showed up in their beautifully composed wool riding gear to parade through London and share the woollen love. Riders were treated to a host of activities from The Campaign for Wool’s partners at Wool Village in the shadow of Tower Bridge. Campaign for Wool retailers turned out in force including the chic and stlylist Jigsaw and Thermafleece teams who won for their incredible wool attire, we challenge everyone to top this for next year!

Many thanks to, Wilson P.K, Jaimee McKenna, “Look Mum No Hands”, Jigsaw, Barbour, Thermafleece and all of the other contributors and supporters for their time and woolly efforts.

Tweed Ride Edinburgh:

To coincide with the launch of Wool Week London and indeed the Wool Ride, Harris Tweed decided to host their own Tweed Ride for the lovely people of Edinburgh!

The cycle ride partnered with Harvey Nichols and Hendrick’s gin and passed some of the city’s most renowned sites including a refreshment stop at tweed specialists Walker Slater, award-winning gastro-pub The Blackbird and a tea party at The Bonham Hotel. Riders were also able to compete for a chance to win an outfit at design house Common People.

The photos are fantastic and are definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already, you can find them here: https://www.facebook.com/harristweedride

Wool Collections: Fashion:

Our partner brands and fashion retail supporters got involved with Wool Week by selecting some of their finest AW14 woollen pieces for our Wool Collections: Fashion online exhibition. We had some fantastic coverage of these pieces and were particularly proud to see a selection of hero products online within ‘The Outfit’ section of Shortlist Magazine, Vogue.co.uk and Look Magazine!

The Campaign for Wool also partnered with celebrated stylist Anna Foster last week to showcase the versatility of wool within fashion for Wool Collection: Fashion Innovation. Anna handpicked an eclectic selection of pieces from established and upcoming designers across the globe to supplement the Wool Collection: Fashion. The chosen mix of vibrant and quirky pieces shown in the link provided, demonstrate perfectly the adaptability of wool and how versatile the fibre is at helping drive innovation and conceptual design.

– See more at: http://www.campaignforwool.org/2014/10/10/wool-collection-fashion-innovation-2/

 Brand Retail Partners: 

We’d also like to thank all of our retail partners and supporters who got involved sharing woolly love across the capital. From online discounts and gift with purchases to exciting in-store activities, Campaign for Wool supporters embraced Wool Week celebrations with full force. Our favourite celebrations, however, were the fabulous Wool Week windows taking pride of place in high street stores across London. Seen below are a selection of our favourite Wool Week windows  from retailers Austin Reed, Brora, Caroline Charles, Heals, Jaeger and John Smedley.

To read more about Wool Week and the interiors activity and workshops see: http://www.campaignforwool.org/2014/10/17/wool-week-london-2014-summary-interiors-activity/