These wool producers are aiming to revitalize the natural fibre’s cost in Europe

On a windy autumn day, the gently rolling hills backyard Rome set the stage for an not going gathering. Wool producers, designers, activists and even model, actor and farmer Isabella Rossellini and her daughter got here collectively at the farm of Ilaria Venturini Fendi â€" now not to have a good time fashion’s right tier, but to rethink it totally.

“It’s challenging producing wool in Italy,” observed Fendi, who continues 600 sheep at her agriturismo, or working guest farm, on the outskirts of the capital. “It’s become a waste product. you could’t do the entire chain anymore. We should alternate ideas â€" to delivery reshaping economies.”

throughout Europe and North america, the photo is bleak: wool â€" a water- and hearth-resistant biodegradable fibre that naturally regulates physique temperature â€" is often burned or discarded as a result of processing fees outweigh returns.

That’s why Fendi was internet hosting the primary in-person World Hope discussion board, a community dedicated to proving that wool production will also be local, moral and circular.

Elettra Wiedemann, left, and her mother, Isabella Rossellini, run Mama Farm in Brookhaven, N.Y., the place they make use of a farm-to-trend strategy to design. (Submitted through Isabella Rossellini)From waste to price

Fendi knows luxurious from the interior out. The youngest daughter of the famed Italian fashion family unit, she left the business years ago to found Carmina Campus â€" “the singing fields” â€" a label built on reuse and regeneration. 

The gathering comes just months before the launch of the UN’s international yr of Rangelands and Pastoralists, in 2026, underscoring the urgency of preserving traditional herding cultures and herbal fibres â€" and a month ahead of the first assembly of the eu center of attention community on resourceful and sustainable tips on how to aid farmers re vitalizing the ecu wool value chain.

among the many experts existing become Blátnaid Gallagher, founder of ireland’s Galway Wool Co-op, which is reviving native Irish wool â€" basically erased by cheaper Asian imports regularly offered as Irish â€" and has received an ecu award for strengthening rural communities. Gallagher’s intention at the european is to push for clearer fibre foundation rules throughout Europe.

Blátnaid Gallagher, founder of eire’s Galway Wool Co-op, is trying to push the ecu for clearer fibre origin regulations across Europe. (Submitted by using Blátnaid Gallagher)

“We’re hoping the eu will provide the customer the opportunity to understand where fibre definitely grows,” Gallagher referred to. “Then perhaps we will reduce our dependency on the monoculture of wool from China that results in heritage items across Europe and more suitable assist farmers.”

Her optimism is shared via Netherlands -based mostly Canadian designer Cynthia Hathaway who’s been campaigning to convey consideration to Europe’s shepherding cultures. 

via her Wool March â€" part protest, part pilgrimage â€" she leads “delicate mob walks” with sheep into cities, a kind of slow activism to spotlight the ecological and cultural cost of wool.

“Transhumance â€" the seasonal migration of flocks â€" is without doubt one of the oldest climate options we now have,” mentioned Hathaway. Her subsequent walk, planned for early 2026, will span a number of days ending in Brussels where eu policy discussions on pastoralists and sustainable fibre creation should be underway.

Netherlands-based mostly Canadian clothier Cynthia Hathaway leads 'soft mob walks' with sheep into cities â€" a type of slow activism to highlight the ecological and cultural cost of wool. (Megan Williams/CBC)

Gallagher says she believes the world is on the cusp of a return to herbal fibres â€" but she and others here warn that greater protections are vital for producers and animals.

these days, below one per cent of world textile fibres come from wool. The decline has intended local wool processing operations in Europe and North the us have all however disappeared.

Mass production of wool in China, Australia and other international locations has pushed world prices down, forcing European and North American mills to shut and leaving small producers unable to compete.

“Farmers get five cents a kilo,” noted Reina Ovinge, who left quick style after 30 years to beginning the Knit Wit solid in the Netherlands. “within the Nineteen Eighties, it become 25 euros. Half of Europe’s wool is unused or underdeveloped.

Ovinge’s answer has been to build her personal micro-deliver chain: shearing and sorting on the farm, then sending the wool to be scoured, spun and dyed, often in Biella â€" Italy’s centuries-ancient wool hub â€" before bringing the yarn domestic for knitting.

The method runs on community effort and endurance, she says, with particular person orders taking around 4 to five weeks.

“That’s the way it was,” she talked about. “That’s how we slow down.”

‘Slowdown’ funds needed over startup funding

Isabella Rossellini and her daughter, Elettra Wiedemann, run the 28-acre Mama Farm in Brookhaven, N.Y. Opened more than a decade ago, it is now home to endangered heritage sheep and chickens and promotes biodiversity via organic heirloom vegetable cultivation.

Alongside cooking courses, knitting circles and nature crafting periods, one initiative is Farm to trend, a program that pairs young designers with the farm’s heritage wool to create one-of-a-variety sweaters.

Mass production of wool in China, Australia and different international locations has pushed global expenses down, forcing European and North American mil ls to close and leaving small producers unable to compete. (Megan Williams/CBC)

“It’s the same with the farm-to-desk move. people obtained truly invested in that movement as a result of they realized after they bought a cucumber: I’m supporting a farm or conserved land and wonder,” talked about Wiedemann. “All things that support a group develop.”

Wiedemann says one of her proudest achievements is getting the term "farm to fashion" into Vogue and ladies’s wear each day, where young designers will see it.

nonetheless, says Rossellini, with out lessen processing charges and public-private partnership to aid producers, Farm to trend items can handiest continue to be a small-scale enterprise.

“if you’re very a success and have an order for 30,000 sweaters, you gained’t be able to meet it the usage of biological wool. It’s a gradual procedure,” referred to Rossellini. 

fashion designer Philip Fimmano , who geared up the area Hope discussion board event with Dutch future forecaster Li Edelkoort, emphasizes the want for affected person, lengthy-term funding in initiatives like this.

“in its place of startup cash, we want slowdown cash,” he referred to.

circular via design

Yet there are some wool producers scaling up sustainably, albeit now not with virgin wool.

Matteo Mantellassi, CEO of Manteco, the mill situated by means of his grandfather in 1943 in Prato, primary Italy, believes recycled wool can rival the top-quality virgin fibres.

contributors are considered at the World Hope discussion board on wool, at at the farm of Ilaria Venturini Fendi, on Oct. three, 2025. (Megan Williams/CBC)

His company’s MWool is made from cautiously chosen publish-purchaser garments, sorted by using colour and remixed with out using dyes or introduced water, in order to be each traceable and round. according to the company, MWool generates 65.6 per cent less CO 2 emission than virgin wool, while ReviWool â€" a fibre recovered from the combing technique of virgin wool â€" cuts emissions with the aid of up to 99.2 per cent, the usage of some distance much less water and power.

“until about twenty years in the past, recycled wool changed into seen as low-cost,” Mantellassi said. “Now it’s beautiful â€" and it saves power, water and chemical substances.”

last 12 months, Manteco processed 68,000 kilograms of offcuts from garment producers, successful the climate project of the 12 months award. He’s begun working with the ecu Parliament on sustainable textile policy, advocating for a carbon tax on items with a big carbon and environmental footprint to boost their cost. 

“We need to teach young designers,” Mantellassi observed. “They don’t all the time recognize what fabrics can be used for what. We need to bring potential again to the birth of the chain.”