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General > The Wool Project Initiative
The Wool Project Initiative
• The Prince hopes to encourage a return to woollen carpets and rugs instead of wooden flooring, and for wool clothes that last instead of the “fast fashion” trend for cheap, synthetic, throwaway garments that are being dumped in landfill sites. • Top designers and labels such as Burberry, Jasper Conran, Paul Smith, Alice Temperley and Savile Row tailors such as Gieves & Hawkes are already using wool. The key is to boost its use in the middle and value retail markets, he said. • A wool week, backed by John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, is planned for September, just before London Fashion Week, when shoppers start to plan and buy their winter wardrobe. • Part of the problem is that wool is often seen as bulky, says Nicholas Coleridge, the MD of Condé Nast publications, who has the pivotal role of enlisting retailers, designers and manufacturers to the cause.. “The secret is to make wool look sleeker,” he said. “It does not always have to be used in a great big Arran sweater. I wear woollen suits, woollen jumpers at the weekend and in this weather in the office. • “We must also destroy the myth about synthetic carpets being more fire-resistant than woollen ones. Nine out of ten out-of-town sales assistants will say that, but it’s wrong. Wool is more fire-resistant.” • The Prince identified the need to boost wool prices two years ago after complaints from upland farmers and tenants of his Duchy of Cornwall estate. He was aware of the low prices paid for wool from his own organic flock of just under 200 Lleyn and Hebridean sheep. • Farmers once expected their annual wool cheque to cover the cost of feeding a sheep for a year, nowadays about £3 to £4. But today shearing and removing the fleece costs from £1 to £1.40. With the average fleece weighing 1.5kg, farmers last year made just under £1 a fleece and no profit from wool. • A year ago key figures from the British Wool Marketing Board, farmers, manufacturers and fashion experts like Mr Coleridge met at Clarence House to plot a revival, called simply The Wool Project. • Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks & Spencer, confirmed his support, saying it was an important step in supporting his farmer suppliers and that he hoped to offer more wool products in stores. • Andy Street, managing director of John Lewis, said two thirds of the company’s carpet sales are British wool products and he hopes to develop more wool goods. This article appeared in full in The Times, 25 January 2010 |
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