WOOL - THE GOLDEN FLEECE FOR SUITS

Savile Row has always appreciated wool's classic qualities - now a new programme of promotion is to trumpet its modern attractions to the wider clothing market

Wool is to tailoring what pastry is to pies.  A Savile Row suit made in lycra might hit the headlines but it is the finest wool cloths from Huddersfield and other centres of cloth excellence that provide the raw material for the artists of Savile Row to mould, as in this fine example from Edward Sexton.

Yet in the clothing world in general, wool has taken a hammering.  Development by other traditional fibres, such as cotton and linen, as well as the many synthetic mixtures, has seen wool lose popularity.  Too warm, too heavy, too much in need of care in cleaning and pressing, too attractive to moths are some of the old criticisms and it has lost out to lighter, easier-care fibres and mixtures that have been making a song and dance about their qualities at the expense of wool.

But its fight back has begun. After the grand party at London’s Australia House in the Autumn to announce its campaign. the Australian Merino Wool organisation staged another event in the City to celebrate the 200 years that it has been sending fleece to London.  An exhibition of costumes through the  years illustrated just how vcrsatile wool cloths have been, including a splendid collection of men’s and women’s vintage garments on loan from the Leicestershire Museum as well as current examples from Savile Row.

More importantly, a range of innovations has been revealed, including nanotechnology to develop anti-moth and anti-bacterial benefits for merino, an anti-odour finish, and the cooling benefits of the new Aqua Merino.  But promotion will also focus upon wool’s traditional qualities, showing how fine, light and easy-care it can be in modern designs. The Woolmark logo, still one of the most recognisable brand logos to be created, will be boosting the cause.

Meantime, Savile Row tailors and their customers continue to prefer it above all comers, with a return to weights that have some guts to them and which don’t crease or wear out so quickly as some of the lighter and finer blends.

The examples shown here were part of the Australian Merino Wool exhibition. At top, the Sexton suit is in a super 140s merino wool flannel in light navy with a white chalk stripe.
From Moxon comes the suiting shown above right, woven from the highest quality 'golden bale' wool and with an 18 carat gold pinstripe, first made up in a suit for Frank Sinatra.
Left, one of Ozwald Boateng's more colourful styles in a purple herringbone suiting, with jade green shirt and purple tie.

For more information on Australian merino go to www.merinoinnovation.com. For info on the Leicester clothing see museums@leics.gov.uk