Understanding Responsible Wool Production

How do you make cloth into clothing without machines? The labour-intensive process involved men, women and children. The Tudors and Stuarts were certainly involved in some way in the cloth trade. Did they take on the risky trade of ‘clothier’ and become rich and powerful? Or were they the unacknowledged ‘spinsters’ working for pennies?

We heard from Valina Bowman-Burns at a recent series of seminars hosted by Essex county Council, and with research primarily from the Essex Record Office, to learn about the East Anglian pre-industrial textile trade. Here, we round up her presentation.

Valina covers terms that we use today that can help to better understand the impact of the industrial revolution, along with an explanation of what the roles in the traditional textile trade were and how they've changed. She also looks at the wool processing stages, and how they fit into Tudor England society. It is a fascinating subject, however, this is just a short snippet of research to easily dive in to and digest.

The Good Growth Company's purpose is to build business systems that create value by design; holistic systems that are regenerative not extractive, will restore the environment, will revive communities, and deliver economic prosperity. They say that "growth has to be seen as growth in value, not scale".

Agriculture suffers acutely from the problems of old school growth, and here is where The Good Growth Company sees a big opportunity to create new value chains. In this lesson with co-founder Mandar Jayawant, we chat about the incredible business system he and his co-founder have developed over 10 years of trial and error to put community at the heart of the system rather than as an afterthought.

Lebenskleidung has been around 12 years. With the credo "More Than Fabrics", they love and live sustainably across the whole supply chain. Founded by Ben, Enrico and Christoph, the business works in small teams to produce fair and sustainable fabrics, mostly organic and with very well established producer relationships. They have a permanent stock program so can work business-to-business from 1 metre onwards, but for their twice yearly collections they innovate along the way to improve quality, social benefits and environmental safety.

Lebenskleidung are honorary members of the IVN, an association of more than 100 companies from various sectors of the leather and textile industry, working together for ecological and socially responsible business practices. They are also a member of Unternehmensgrün, a cross-industry green association that sees itself as a productive and strong network of sustainable businesses that can actually have political influence.

Benjamin Itter, the Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Marketing regales us here with the story of how and why Lebenskleidung was founded, along with three fibre case studies that showcase the ways in which the business is pioneering change for the rest of the textile industry.

Our panel discussion for May brought together two experts who work close to the source of wool fibres and understand exactly what 'responsible wool' really means. Bristol Cloth is a regeneratively and locally produced cloth made in collaboration with enterprises based around Bristol in the South West of England. Fernhill Farm provides the raw materials for Bristol Cloth via Fernhill Fibre, run by farmer Jen Hunter, to help re-educate and re-introduce responsibly produced wool into the market. 

In this conversation, between two responsible wool businesses, you'll hear what makes wool responsible, the process of building local 'fibershed' communities, and whether localism has a place in the fashion market. This live Q&A was aired on Monday 22nd June 2020 as part of our monthly networking events series.

Babs Behan - Bristol Cloth and Botanical Inks

The local and regeneratively produced Bristol Cloth project was managed by Babs, who also founded natural dye business Botanical Inks. Both enterprises champion local production, low impact farming, textile education and building community.

Jen Hunter - Fernhill Farm and Fernhill Fibre

Fernhill Farm is a 160 acre farm, regeneratively managed by Jen and husband since 1997. Through a hybrid of British genetics, Andrew built up a flock of multipurpose sheep breeds that are now clipped for their flock to be used by Fernhill Fibre, embedding value and re-educating on the importance of wool.

Producing nutrient dense pasture-fed meat products, blade shearing and wool harvesting fine fibres in all the native colours whilst regenerating the land using Holistic Planned Grazing principles, Fernhill Fibre’s focus has always been the business to business supply chain.

Martin Brambley and Yolanda Leask talk to us about the incredible sustainable fabrics they have developed. London/Berlin-­based company, Doppelhaus, produce ethically sourced British wool textiles using non-woven technology. The entire process requires fewer steps, no additives and less water than conventional wool fabrics. Our favourite part? They can tell you the names of the sheep that provided the wool. By presenting natural coloured felt-like fabrics printed with pastel colours and metallic foil patterns, the company has carved out a space for non­-woven textiles with fashion­-focussed aesthetics.

We first aired this live Q&A on 6th October 2017 as the company were setting off on their journey. They have since partnered with the BFTT for a research fellow to push the innovation and marketing for their product. The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology grant is a five-year industry-led project, which focusses on delivering innovation within the entire fashion and textile supply chain. Through this project, Doppelhaus Ltd can realise their huge ambition to create a sustainable, local and affordable nonwoven material for mass-market fashion made in the UK, from fibre to advertising.

Understanding terms associated with wool production from fibre to fabric will help when it comes to working with your producers, sourcing raw materials and finished textiles, and the aspects of manufacture that may require some sustainable and ethical solution updates. Use this glossary to take in the terminology, and build upon your knowledge.

Mark Raymond, owner of Organic Sheepskins and UK sheep farmer at Neville Farm, joins us to explain how he came to own this certified organic farm and run a certified organic tanning process producing sheepskin rugs and products for wide-ranging clients.

We dive straight away into the state of sheep farming in the UK, with insight into the high animal welfare standards and traceability of these byproduct fleeces. The farm is also 'carbon positive', and Mark explains what regenerative agriculture is for his farm, and the case for it being possible to help combat climate change. We also controversially look at veganism, and the affect of this lifestyle/ethical choice on production and marketing of leather alternatives, along with arguments for plant-based people being open to witnessing how Organic Sheepskins are benefitting the system.

This is a two part lesson: in part two, you can discover what the organic tanning process actually is, what makes it certifiably organic, and pricing structure for such products. These two lessons should give you a fresh and unique perspective on a side of the industry that is usually behind closed doors.

    **Please be aware that the video and key takeaways contain descriptions of processes within the leather and meat industries.**