Wool—it’s the fibre for the fashion conscious in the 1980s

Press, 17 August 1979, Page 13

Wool—it’s the fibre for the fashion conscious in the 1980s

Britain’s first Fashion Fahr ex Exhibition took place at Earls r Court, London, earlier this year. Prominent, almost predominant, were the fabrics in wool.

Fashion plays tricks on primary producersFrequently, the basic source of a product is misled by the competition, by marketing men, and by arguments propounded to support a quasi-political stance. In short, there is a fashion in views. At some time the sheep, knowing that its fleece could not be converted into drip-dry, non-iron, labour-saving, non-hard wearing, should have rolled happily on its back, cast in the role as a loss to evolution. Wool is certainly the golden fleece. What is not certain is who is going to shear the gold from it. The grower and his representatives must be very cautious. It is no longer necessary to make wool a purchaseable commodity; more essential is to develop the right sales outlets. In the view of many who have always worked with wool and appreciated its virtues, those who have meddled with it. trying to give it .advantages that were man-conceived and not inherent, caused most damage. 'The turn of fashion over the last few years has proved that given a little time everything passes, including the obsession with easy care. The future for wool rests firmly on its own qualities — all of which are now primary fashion requirements. And, because or economic conditions, these qualities are likely to remain so. First, people want warmth; and they appreciate the thermal property of wool. Being able to put on layer upon layer of wool without cutting off the body's reaction to external variation in temperature coincides with the layered fashion look and the necessary clothing economy which results in the wearing of summer clothes as part of a deeply layered autumn and more deeply layered winter look. Fashion, the purse, and fleece are complementary. Second, colour is now so varied in tone and shade that the necessary colours are more easily produced with wool than with a synthetic. Syntics. too, because of the way they are produced and sold, are usually offered in limited colours. The phrase "economy of scale," once used by the manufacturers of fabrics jn map-made fibres to

push a cost advantage, now mocks its originators. Having built big and produced bulk in limited colour options, textile giants with massive facilities for oil-based synthetics find themselves unable to cater to the client’s wish for colour. Just as with the inevitable progression of the funeral march, their costs go mounting on and on and on.

It has always been true that some brilliant colours are more brilliant in a synthetic than on wool, but it is more relevant that wool will take more variations than synthetic, and will take them with less trouble. And a very definite ac-< companiment of the layered look, the demand for longevity in clothing, is married to a wish for lasting, hence more subtle, colours. Wool has always been a kind recipient of colour; synthetics are frequently unkind. The return of the Joseph’s coat is an indicator for wool.

Third, fashion is asking that clothes be made in two ways: tailored or knitted. If they are tailored, wool’s elasticity, its ability to be moulded, makes it the most appropriate yarn. If the garment is knitted, wool not only offers those advantages it gives to tailoring, it extends them to add comfort and open up the way to new styles and new methods of make. These two methods of dressing are not new in the sense of not having been seen before, but are new in the emphasis that will be placed on them, fuelled as they are by avant garde clothing designers. Both will ensure that wool will be as important a yarn for the mass market as it has always been for the high fashion and expensive. At Fabrex. Jonathan Thorp, one of Britain’s best known knitters of fashion fabrics, reported a steady increase in wool sales. Christopher England, the managing director, said that despite the increased cost the Woolmark jersey fabric was preferred to its equivalent synthetic. He is certain that the movq to-

wards wool will be both continuing and dramatic. C. J. Bonnet, from Lyon, aroused great interest with its wool muslin. The printed wool lawn designs by Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell, soft but deep pastels in abstract painterly swirls, were among best sellers. Also on display were fabrics in natural (undyed) Jacobs wool from Holywell Textiles in Wales, flannels from Cambrian Mills, and dress fabrics in pure new wool from Glyntaff. Woven cloths on the special wool section included blends in silk, wool, mohair from Arthur Dickson (Munrospun) in various weights; mohair and worsted suitings from William Laycock and Sons; Reid and Taylor’s worsted suitings and lambswool jacketing; and Harris Tweed from Kenneth Macleod, who manufactures on the Isle of Lewis. The number of wool fabrics and the list of their sources are import-

ant because Fashion Fabrex was, as its title sug--gests, an exhibition of interest to fashion. The importance for wool producers is that for Europe the fabrics were for spring 1980. Not surprising, in Paris earlier in April, the high fashion collections for autumn 1979 used an enormous amount of wool, either woven or knitted. Rather surprising is the growing inclusion of wool for the spring. There are two main reasons for wool becoming an any and every season fibre. Sophisticated clothing manufacturers sell around the world, and include garments in their ranges that are suitable for spring and autumn, irrespective of their home market season. They are also happy to sell garments in fabric that commands a premium price, consequently cloth producers are marketing established lighter weight fabrics in wool, and developing new ones. The demand for wool is unlikely to diminish. If there is any customer dissatisfaction it will be from over-pricing or non-availa-bility. The retail price of all forms of clothing has increased almost immeasu-

rably during the last three years and is vulnerable to further dramatic jumps. In addition to inflation and higher costs in growing countries, the financing of capital and labour throughout the various processing stages must escalate. The cost of natural fibres must either be contained or reduced, or the price of clothes, although already high, will go higher. Manufacturers of clothing for the middle and low cost shopper are already avoiding wool, and not only pure new wool. Even wool rich blends are leaping beyond their budget. Menswear buyers who still need to offer wool garments are placing increasing business with comparatively low cost producers. There is no doubt that Europe will always have a clothing industry, but for how long it will be able to afford to buy wool from external sources is a question just beginning to be discussed. Wool producers, for example, will expect to have their costs equalled by purchasers of the clip and to make a reasonable profit. And so will all those who handle the wool in any way, whether they ship it, scour it, spin it, dye it, knit or weave it finish it, pack it, make it up — the list is almost endless. Once the wool has left the sheep a lot of people keep warm from handling it. How constant prices will remain depends on whcr has the cash. Forecasters consider the Japanese the most likely market force to hoist prices up — or, at the least to ensure that they are held level. The Japanese industry faces a problem; where will it sell the cloth. Free trade is a joke in bad taste when compared with the tariffs protecting the American market; free trade, or rather the free invasion of the E.E.C., must be limited eventually. It is not likely that when the screw of unemployment and factory closure is really tightly turned that the workers being made redundant will be any happier than the steel workers unnerving the French authorities. Wool producers could find themselves selling at good prices to a processor without a market for the end product.

By

ANGUS STEWART,

a New Zealander

who writes on fashion for British newspapers.