Fibers

Wool is the ultimate natural chameleon fiber, embodying many diverse aspects.
Wool can be satisfyingly soft, warm, cozy, and sensuous, or rugged, tough, and functional, while its inherent drapability allows its finest fibers to appear lustrous, sleek, and elegant.

Our relationship with this historic fiber is almost as old as civilization itself, and wool's unique thermally responsive and insulating qualities remain as relevant today as at any time in history.

----------------------------------------

Early history

The use of felted wool for clothing can be traced back tens of thousands of years. Taking inspiration from the matting of the fleece that occurs naturally on the animal's back, primitive cultures worldwide developed processes of wetting, massaging, and pressing the wool to produce a dense, matted felt "blanket" that could be cut or manipulated into varying thicknesses, or molded into shape.

Felted wool was commonplace in China and Egypt long before the technologies for spinning and weaving were developed.

However, wool was the first animal fiber to be woven, and by Roman times wool, together with linen and leather, clothed Europe.

Cotton was seen as a mere curiosity, while silk was an extravagant luxury. It is believed that the Romans invented the carding process to brush, tease, and comb the fibers into alignment to facilitate the smoother spinning and weaving of the yam.

It is also believed that the Romans started the selective breeding of sheep to provide better and finer qualities of wool.

Pre-industry

By the beginning of the medieval period the wool trade was the economic engine of both the Low Countries and central Italy, and relied on English wool exports for cloth production.

Wool was, at this time, England's primary and most valuable export commodity. Pre-Renaissance Florence's wealth was similarly built on the textile industry, which guided the banking policies that made Florence the hub of the Renaissance.

By the time of the English Restoration, in the mid-seventeenth century, English woolens had begun to compete with silks in the international market.

To help protect this lucrative trade the Crown forbade its new American colonies to trade wool with anybody other than the "mother" country.

Spain's economy was similarly reliant on this valuable export, to such an extent that the export of merino lambs was only permitted by royal consent.

Spanish merino sheep, with their finer quality fleece, became the most desirable breed.

A great majority of today's Australian merino sheep originated from here, via a circuitous route as part of a gift to the Governor of the Dutch Cape, and then onto Australia, where the vast areas of dry pastures perfectly suit fine-wool sheep breeds.

The Spanish also introduced sheep to Argentina and Uruguay, where the climate and pastures were favorable for their growth and expansion, and today they represent a sizeable percentage of the two countries' export revenue.

Modern times

By the mid-nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution had turned Bradford in Yorkshire into the center of the industrialized world's spinning and weaving industry.

Bradford's insatiable appetite for fine woolen fibers is said to have built and maintained Australia's colonial economy.

By the beginning of the twentieth century Australian sheep rearing and its wool trade had usurped Europe's industry, and to this day Australia remains the most important global producer of wool.

The end of World War II was a catalyst for many socioeconomic and political changes.

Man-made materials were in tune with the modem word of working women, busy lifestyles, and greater social mobility. New sporting and leisure pursuits encouraged the use of easy-care fabrics.

The synthetics first developed between the regos and 1940s were in general use throughout the 195os and roos, and were considered sophisticated and in tune with postwar values.

Acrylic was developed as a substitute for knitted wool, while polyester, or Terylene as it was known in tailoring, was the perfect medium for drip-dry, non-iron, easy-care lifestyles.

By contrast, by the mid-196os new sociopolitical movements were emerging in North America and Western Europe;

the flower-power movement questioned Western values and especially materialism.

In the search for a new world order many alternative lifestyles and cultures were embraced.

One outward sign of this was in a revival of traditional crafts. Wool and cotton, both natural and traditional fibers, were favored, preferably if homespun and ideally with an organic pedigree.


By contrast, by the mid-196os new sociopolitical movements were emerging in North America and Western Europe;

the flower-power movement questioned Western values and especially materialism.

In the search for a new world order many alternative lifestyles and cultures were embraced. One outward sign of this was in a revival of traditional crafts.

Wool and cotton, both natural and traditional fibers, were favored, preferably if homespun and ideally with an organic pedigree.

It may be said that the hippy movement was instrumental in jump-starting the wool revival.

Looking to the future

While wool's heritage and association with reliability and quality may be one of its defining strengths as a commodity, contemporary consumers are now increasingly sophisticated and demanding, with myriad lifestyle issues that fabrics and fashion must strive to address.

In the drive to be responsive to contemporary needs and also remain relevant, scientists and textile designers are researching and developing new technological solutions to extend the existing attributes of this important, traditional fiber.

Technological advances in textiles can provide natural fibers with adaptive aspects, which give an already desirable raw material specific enhancements and new benefits, allowing it to remain competitive and aspirational.

Current research aims to develop innovative treatments that will enhance, extend, and manipulate wool's properties in order to respond to the increasingly shifting requirements of the twenty-first-century consumer.

New-generation wool technology is no longer cost driven, but is about adding alternative fibers, be they synthetic or high-tech, as visual, tactile, or practical enhancements to give an alternative aspect to wool.

In the two decades after World War II synthetics and natural fibers had no shared common goals, and there was a cultural class divide between the selection of one over the other.

Today, natural fibers and synthetics can blend harmoniously, both from a fiber and social viewpoint. Adding two percent LYCRA® will give fine-wool suiting a "memory," while LUREXT™, for example, can liven up a flat worsted suit fabric; the options are endless.


Modern interpretations of wool can provide the designer with a broad, tactile vocabulary that can express a wide range of design requirements, from classic, traditional, and authentic themes, through to the most challenging futuristic explorations in performance fabrics.

Once upon a time wool care, for the consumer, meant careful hand washing, a dedicated cleaning agent, and towel drying. Today's consumer is able to enjoy the beauty of woolen products while caring for them in much the same way as they would many other fibers.

The chameleon qualities of this versatile fiber can express
and respond to myriad fashion personalities, from urbane, contemporary modem luxury to functional and technologically advanced sportswear.

Wool fiber

The natural properties of wool make it flexible, resilient, insulative, absorbent, hygienic, and moldable.

Wool is an organic compound composed of keratin, an animal protein that is also found in hair, nails, feathers, and hom. As distinct from hair or fur, wool has many tiny overlapping scales, all of which point in the same direction.

The predominant natural color of wool is a creamy white, although some sheep breeds produce other natural colors, such as brown, black, and silver, as well as some random mixes.
Wool fibers, while still on the animal, are coated in a grease that contains lanolin, a slightly yellowish substance.

The lanolin is removed and collected during the washing process of raw wool, and used in products such as cosmetics, skin ointment, and waterproofing wax. On occasion the wool may be processed without the removal of its natural oil, in which case it retains excellent water-repellent qualities.

Traditional Aran wool does not have its lanolin removed and was originally used by Scottish and Irish fishermen because it offered excellent protection from the elements.

Crimp

Wool fibers have a crimp, a natural wave that allows air to be trapped within the structure, giving wool its natural insulating quality.

Fine merino wool may have as many as 100 crimps per inch, while a coarser karakul may have as few as one or two crimps per inch.

In the spinning process the crimps of the fiber wrap around each other, increasing wool's already excellent tensile strength, which can be stretched from 25 to 35 percent of its length before reaching breaking point.

The springiness of the crimp gives wool its inbuilt recovery, or "memory," enabling woolen clothes to maintain their shape. Hanging a creased suit in a damp or steamy environment will allow the creases to drop out in very little time without any need to press or iron.

Resilience

The exterior of the wool fiber is hydrophobic and tends to repel water, while the interior of the fiber is hydroscopic and attracts water, which means it can absorb up to 30 percent of its bulk weight in moisture vapor without feeling wet.

This gives wool its comfort factor, because it can still feel warm while wet, which is one of the reasons nomads, herdsmen, and fishermen living and working in harsh intemperate climates use it.

Wool has natural flame-resistant properties so needs high temperatures before igniting, and does not disintegrate until about 90°C.


Wool that has been felted and treated with lanolin is water-resistant and air-permeable, as well as being slightly antibacterial, which helps the wicking away of odor;

airing a woolen product will remove much of the build-up of odor, eliminating the need for constant laundering.