As a former student of British textiles production in the 17th-18th century (thanks to the lovely Dr. Negley Harte for instilling that fascination in me), I should know more about Merino wool than I do. I know that the wool comes from Australia and that’s about it. More to the point, I had no idea about the extent of it’s use within the fashion industry. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the export of Australian merino wool and to mark this occasion, sponsored by the Australian Wool Innovation, a prot√©g√© programme has been established.
Five designers known for their use of Australian wool in the past have been asked to aid their chosen protégés to help develop their vision the future for Australian wool with the finest Merino wool at their disposal, to create a collection.
Jean-Pierre Braganza for Karl Lagerfeld
Kristian Aadnevik for Donatella Versace
Julian Louie for Francisco Costa – Calvin Klein
Ioannis Cholidis for Paul Smith
Sandra Backlund for Franca Sozzani (Vogue Italia)
The collections will be presented in January at a special gala at the Pitti Immagine Uomo show in Milan and I’m most interested to see three particular designers’ use of a material steeped in history.
Jean Pierre Braganza – Though he has worked with Robert Cary Williams in the past, I see a sort of refined ‘messiness’ that I love in his work. His collections border on being aggressive but always in a way that is appealing to me. I don’t associate him with a material like Merino wool so it will be really interesting to see what he produces with the aid of Kaiser Karl.
Kristian Aadnevik – This London based Norwegian designer called his AW07-8 collection ‘Valerie’ – part fairy-tale, party gothic-horror apparently but having been plucked by Donatella Versace, me thinks it was his dark take on glamour that cinched it rather than the goth/fairytale elements. Maybe something extravagantly OTT using merino wool?
Sandra Backlund – It’s no surpise that Sandra (winner of Hyeres this year!) was chosen by the non-designer of the group but heavily influential editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia. Sandra has taken knitting beyond all conventions and I’m really excited to see what she presents in Milan with all this Merino wool available for her to basically go ‘mad’ on her vision of wool.
Hi Susie! I’ve been reading your blog for several months now, and I absolutely love it. You are a wonderfully talented writer/stylist and your blog is pure candy! The reason I feel compelled to finally comment is to lead your attention to this website and the ‘Pink’ video link on it. There is a boycott on Australian Merino Wool, and it is doing whatever it can to counteract it, i.e. setting up designer programs, etc. Please dont get me wrong- I am not an activist by any means! I wear leather, eat meat, etc. But I am also a Women’s Sweater Designer for a large company in the U.S. and accidentally found out about this four or five days ago. The video made me sick. Unfortunately most- but not all-Merino suppliers use merino from many places so it’s hard to trace exactly which wool comes from Australia, unless it’s advertised, so it’s difficult to boycott. However I just thought you’d like to see where this initiative is coming from. http://www.savethesheep.com/f-boycottAuWool.asp (warning, the video is really hard to watch.)
Australia sheep farmers practise mulesing http://www.liveexportshame.com/mulesing/mulesing1.htm its disgusting
Thank you both for pointing this issue out – I had absolutely no idea…however, I’m still interested as to what the designers come up with for this project… I’m so sorry if I came across as ignorant…
Not ignorant at all! As I said, I’m a sweater designer and I only found out about this last week, and purely by accident too.
At the end of the day, Merino is a beautiful fiber and I’m very interested as well to see the garments.
Poor sheep! But the anniversary sounds fun- just not for the sheep… Merino comes from NZ too! And we’re phasing out mulesing.
Hi Susie, I’m a new commenter. I love reading your blog. I’ve been reading your old posts and you said you liked antipodium. Maybe you might be interested in runwayreporter.com? It’s the main New Zealand fashion site and it has all the collections from NZ designers, lots of lesser known designers etc. and a few aussies too. I’m not some weird advertising person/machine which appears on blogs, I just thought you might be interested! (Unless you already know, of course)
You were taught by Negely! He supervised my masters dissertation and is a wonderful man. When were you a UCL-er?
I love your blog btw.
Kate
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Hi, I am an Australian and think that people should really check out the facts before they go slamming our Australian farmers. Mulesing is a necessary practise that needs to be performed so that the sheep don’t suffer from fly strike and rotten flesh hanging from their backsides, which can lead to death. If I recall correctly, Pink withdrew her comments on the Mulesing issue once she found out the facts. The industry has planned to phase out Mulesing by 2010. Merino Wool is a wonderful natural textile and its great to see it being used in such high fashion. Sorry to go on about it but I thought it was necessary to show the other side of the story as well.
Thanks.
i’m sorry to burst the bubble of ignorance floating around here, but museling is a neccessary evil of the wool industry in Australia, because of a disease called Flystrike which can inflict a much more painful death on sheep.
Isabel is right, Pink withdrew her support of the ban on Aussie wool after she became fully aware of the facts, as did Australian actress Toni Collette.
Of course i think the practice is pretty horrible, but so is the way cows are slaughtered for meat, and the way male chicks are left to suffocate (see Jamie Oliver’s doco).
We like to remain ignorant to the realities of primary industry because the truth is very off-putting.
If you make a decision to boycott products, at least do it after finding out both sides of the story.
Thanks
Sorry, Kate 21.8.07, you have your facts wrong. There are many ways to prevent flystike in sheep but the Aust farmer finds them too expensive so would rather slice off big chunks of backside to save him a few cents. It has been proven that twice a year crutching and spraying along with regular inspections prevents flystrike. It must be remembered that as with any animal humans decide to have be it dogs, cats or fish we are responsible for their welfare. That doesnt include cutting the skin and flesh from the rear end no matter under what pretext they use for doing it. I would like to add this extremely painful act is done to animals and they are not given any painkillers. Also there is no info kept (funny that) on how many lambs die from fly strike after being mutilated, from blood loss, stress, distress or cancers they contrat around the bum because they have no wool to protect it. Farmers would never reveal such info even if they kept it. In the farmers eyes sheep are only commodities not worthy of respect and compassion, and so as an animal they have no inherent value only what they bring to the farmers all ready overflowing bank account. Take a look at live exports to see that! If this mutilation was so great then why is it being stopped in 2010? because it isnt great it is a CHEAP nasty cruel way of saving the farmer a dollar. By the way: I am an animal lover..and there is nothing wrong with that. As for PINK, she withdrew her comments because she was forced to.
Goodness Isabel,you have no idea what you are saying. Flystrike is not a disease…it is the infestation of flies usually in sheep. Musleing is not ‘necessary’ at all. Thats wool and sheep industry PR misleading the public with their misinformation. If you want to tell people about bubbles of ignorance then may I suggest you learn about muelsing BEFORE making claims about whats a disease and whats not and whats’necessary evil’. It is easy for you to say about ‘necessary evil’ considering its not your backside being cut to shreds! Is it.
Further, we make these armchair comments about how being cruel is acceptable yet it is not actually us who will do the suffering..how ignorant and arrogant are we?
Farmers mules because it is cheaper and easier for them to do so. It is not about animal welfare at all because if they were concerned they would crutch and spray.
And to suuport that, there are more and more farmers CHOOSING not to mules but to crutch and spray or breed bare breech sheep which are not prone to flystrike because they naturally have smooth skin around their bum. The reason Merino sheep are prone to flystrike is because they have numerous folds in their skin which provide a great place for flies to lay eggs. It needs to be said that flies can strike anywhere on a sheep – around the head or shoulders for example, not just around the bum so what – we cut away large areas of skin and flesh all over the animal? Come on people…stop animal abuses. The reason why Australian farmers mutilate sheep in this way is because they can not because they dont have a choice! Now that they have been challenged legally on the issues the industry shuts their mouth and gets on with phasing out this barbaric mis treatment of sheep. And let me say sheep are the SILENT sufferers! Its high time we thought about them not the money it costs the whinging farmer to look after the animals properly. Animals they make lots of money from! It is also high time the farmer spent a little of his cash and did the right thing at marking time and employed enough people to spray and crutch through the year. if he isnt prepared to this then he should not have sheep- simple as that!
Hey Isabel if the way cows are slaughtered for meat is awful then why do you support it by eating their dead rotting flesh?
If you do not approve of animal cruelty then dont support it- SIMPLE REALLY!
Stop mulesing mutilations by boycotting wool..
Please consider what you are buying when you buy Australian wool. At http://www.savethesheep.com are some excellent reports on the effects of mulesing (and live exports); the lamb may die of flystrike in the wound, septicaemia, shock, blood loss, and even its mother may reject it. Lambs have been seen, running sideways to escape the pain, or heads down, unable to move from the shock and the pain. There is no excuse for this shocking mutilation, because alternatives are available as described above.
When sheep get past their best wool producing years, Australia sends them on old wrecks of ships to the Middle East, where after a torturous journey, they face appallingly cruel handling and slaughter. Australian farmers even breed animals for just this purpose.
Australia similarly exports cattle, goats, camels and deer, and on occasion horses. Cattle suffer terribly, for example in Egypt, where their leg tendons are slashed and their eyes stabbed to disable them before their throats are cut, while they are fully conscious and aware after this appalling cruelty.
Australia claims to have the “highest standards” in livestock exports – but those standards only go as far as the ship before it leaves Australia, and the standards are routinely breached, with no sanctions against the exporters. Ill and injured animals are loaded regardless, and over 2 million animals have died on the ships alone. Appallingly, those animals are the “lucky ones”.
So please – think before you buy Australian.