On this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into wool production with Marianne Mclean-Atkins, a textile designer and knitwear specialist with 20 years of experience working as an in-house designer for Asia-based apparel suppliers. She is currently the Sustainable Fashion Education Director at Redress in Hong Kong. Did you know that decisions made at the farm level impact the types of apparel products for which wool can be used? And did you know that, despite this, most wool farmers have no idea which kinds of products their wool ends up in? We go through the various stages of the production of wool, starting from the rearing and shearing of the sheep, to the classing of the fleece, degreasing, scouring, spinning, dyeing, blending, and finally the knitting or weaving of the yarn. We also touch on why wool fell out of favour, and the potential implications of this from a sustainability perspective.
This episode is part of a mini-series that explains the production processes behind different fabrics, the players involved, what are their incentives, and more. It’s hard to have a conversation about how to make a material better if we don’t understand how it’s made in the first place.
Connect with Marianne on LinkedIn to follow her work. And, connect with me on LinkedIn, or drop me an email at kim@manufacturedpodcast.com.
CREDITS:
Host: Kim van der Weerd
This is a Maed in India production.
Recording Engineers: Lakshman Parsuram & Kartik Kulkarni
Sound Editor & Mix Engineer: Kartik Kulkarni
Creative Director: Mae Mariyam Thomas
Project Manager: Shaun Fanthome
Producer: Husein Haveliwala
