This Week is Wool Week
15-10-2013
The Wool Week campaign officially began in October 2010 with a launch event that saw London’s historic tailoring street Savile Row transformed into a pasture upon which fifty sheep grazed. Over 100 companies participated in Wool Week and thousands of consumers took part in activities such as knitting and felting. Yellow sheep were even spotted queuing outside Selfridges department store on Oxford Street.
2011 saw the launch of Wool Modern, an exhibition opened by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, showcasing the very best in fashion and design in wool. Wool Modern featured the work of seminal designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.
The Campaign for Wool was also introduced to key international markets in Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Japan.
In October 2012, the Campaign launched Wool School, its first major educational initiative. 12 top retailers including Topshop, Hobbs and Jigsaw joined forces with design students at leading universities in order to create a series of wool sweaters which were sold in stores. 5% of profits have been put back into educating the next generation of designers about the benefits of using wool.
In 2012 the Campaign for Wool launched in China, while our 2013 Wool Week celebrations started in September with the launch of Campaign for Wool Italy. They will continue throughout the Autumn season in Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Korea, Japan and China.
Growing in participants and momentum, 2013 sees The Campaign for Wool take over the UK during Wool Week, with a variety of exciting events and inspiring initiatives with the aim of highlighting wool as a natural, renewable and biodegradable fibre.
Wool School
Following a successful first year the initiative welcomes Margaret Howell, Topman, Christopher Raeburn, Folk, Barbour, Brora and Albam to the roster of top UK fashion labels aligned with UK universities. For a second year running the project has seen students introduced to a retail partner and given the opportunity to design a wool jumper for their company keeping this year’s theme ‘knitwear traditions of the British Isles’ front of mind. The campaign received 1000s of entries, one student per retailer has been selected and 15 jumper designs have been developed, manufactured and will be available in stores to coincide with UK Wool Week. 5% of WOOL SCHOOL jumper sales will go back into fashion education programmes across the UK.
Knit Nation
This year Wool Week celebrates haberdashery and encourages the nation to pick up knitting needles. An exciting partnership with John Lewis will see a week-long agenda of fashion forward knitting and wool craft classes hosted by some of the UK’s finest knitwear specialists at both Edinburgh and London stores. John Lewis’ partners such as Erika Knight, Rowan, Arne & Carlos and Milamia will create bespoke patterns and demonstrate techniques for all skill levels, showcasing knitting in its most contemporary form.
John Lewis’ Oxford Street window will come to life as live knitters knit their way around a plain white room setting. The installation will develop over the course of Wool Week, emerging as a flurry of colourful knit patterns.
Drop by throughout the week to see the best in industry sharing their woolly knowledge, all skill levels welcome.
Picknit
Craft, knitting and crochet rules supreme with the launch of Picknit; the knitting party that friends, strangers and customers can participate in by hosting their own PicKnit at home, school, in a shop, café, on a beach or anywhere at all. Knitters can download a stunning brightly coloured blanket pattern and two matching cushions along with template invitations from www.thecampaignforwool.org. Alternatively the PicKnit team will be hosting one-off events at different venues; simply bring a rug, picnic and needles join the family fun. Watch out for further information at www.campaignforwool.org.uk.
Royal Academy of Arts of Arts
The Campaign for Wool will support the Royal Academy’s ‘AUSTRALIA’ exhibition, the largest collection of Australian Art ever seen outside Australia, running from 17th September to 8th December. The Campaign for Wool’s Australian Funding Partner,
The Woolmark Company will focus on celebrating the role that wool has played in forming both the landscape and culture of the nation. To close Wool Week a flock of Aussie/English Bowmont Merino sheep will make a special appearance in the courtyard of the Royal Academy on Saturday 19th October as part of the RA’s family learning programme where kids of all ages will be encouraged to meet the sheep and learn about the wool fibre – full details can be found on the Royal Academy’s website
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk./
Victoria Quarter, Leeds, Wool Exhibition
To celebrate Wool Week, Leeds College of Art have collaborated with SIL Holdings to create stunning wool installations to be housed in the Victoria Quarter buildings. The installations will be free to view and make up part of a competition, winning students will be awarded work placements with SIL Holdings Limited fabrics. Harvey Nichols will be showcasing one of the winning designs in a window throughout the duration of Wool Week.
Wool Interiors
This year sees the launch of OneWool in both the UK and USA. Top retailers, manufacturers and consumers will unite to choose one wool product to highlight and so create a huge celebration of the best wool interior items across the industry. Products ranging from carpets and rugs to fabrics and furnishing items will be promoted and recognised during Wool Week with the OneWool social media and in-store activity.
Wool Interior Design Competition
Continuing the success of Wool House, the Campaign will launch a wool room design competition in association with Homes & Gardens and endorsed by leading industry associations including KLC School of Design. The competition will have three different entry levels including professional, student and amateur to encourage the use of wool textiles within the home. Interestingly all entries will be submitted via Pinterest with the three winning entries being photographed for a magazine feature and displayed at a future design event.
To celebrate British Wool Week & the launch of Mum & Me Coatwalk, the Jacques Vert Group will be offering £50 off all wool coats until midnight November 3rd across eight of its nine elegantly British brands including Kaliko, Planet & Windsmoor.
The offer is available in concessions at Debenhams, House of Fraser & John Lewis.
Mum & Me Coatwalk, celebrating those special Mum & Me moments that stay with us forever.
http://www.campaignforwool.org
