The wool industry’s latest marketing campaign will kick off on Wednesday with some help from Saks Fifth Avenue.
An international group of wool organizations, growers and textile manufacturers, including Australian Wool Innovation and the International Wool Textile Organization, are funding the Global Wool Initiative to promote the benefits of wool, and the use of extra-fine merino wool in particular.
Extra-fine merino wool is grown by sheep that have been bred to produce a wool that has a significantly smaller diameter, allowing for the production of fabrics that are lighter and have a softer hand. The industry is focusing its efforts for the fiber on the highest ends of the fashion spectrum.
“Wool has evolved and today an immense amount of time, care and craft is invested into growing, weaving and spinning the highest-quality merino wool into the superb fabrics that are coveted for couture and high-end fashion,” Brenda McGahan, executive director of The Woolmark Co. and project director of the campaign, said in a statement.
For the U.S., the Global Wool Initiative has teamed with Saks to sponsor the high-end department store’s fall Want It campaign. Each of the 55 Saks stores across the country will showcase key fashion items for women and men chosen by Michael Fink, Saks’ vice president of women’s fashion, and Michael Macko, vice president of men’s fashion. Saks tapped Michael Roberts, who recently left his position as fashion director at the New Yorker to take over as fashion and style director at Vanity Fair, to produce visuals for the campaign. Roberts has created more than 20 original pieces of art to illustrate the trends picked out by Fink and Macko.
The Saks store in Manhattan will host an in-store VIP event on Wednesday night to unveil the campaign and a new Extra Fine Merino Wool Lounge that has been set up on the store’s third floor. Diva Zappa, the youngest daughter of Frank Zappa and an avid knitter, is expected to be on hand to help create scarves that will benefit the Free Arts charity organization.
The Global Wool Initiative will also work with Dillard’s, focusing on promoting woolen men’s wear in the South to promote the fiber as a year-round item.