Three and a half years ago we started Citizen Wolf with one fabric in three colours. It was an experiment testing whether (or not) people wanted made-to-measure Tees, and for that purpose having organic cotton in black, white and grey marl only was enough.
But we always knew that offering a range of premium natural fabrics would be central to what we do, and our first winter in 2016 gave us the opportunity to start testing more fabrics.
Our second ever fabric was a stock service pure merino wool jersey that was both soft and incredibly warm. We knew it was a mix of Aussie and Kiwi wool and made in the same mill as our organic cotton just outside Melbourne, but not much else. We'd only just started our education journey down the rabbit hole of fabrics, and we didn't even know to ask if it was non-mulesed (thankfully it was!).
Anyway we loved that merino wool jersey and it soon became a best seller.
The bad news.
What we didn't realise was that the commodity of wool was on a bull run, doubling in price in less than 4 years. As you can see in the graph below, wool hit it's historical high in September 2018 largely after being 'rediscovered' by sustainably minded fashion brands around the world:
source: tradingeconomics.com
Thanks mainly to the arcane workings of the futures markets, it takes time for raw material prices to work their way through any supply chain. But as wool - and in particular the superfine 17.5 micron merino we use - has increased in price over time, so has the cost of our fabric.
We’ve absorbed the price rise over the last few years, but this winter our pure merino wool Tees are going up by $10.
The good news.
Even though we were perfectly happy with our old supplier, the latest price rise gave us pause and we began shopping around. After months of research we've landed on a new supplier, also in Melbourne, who began life as a wool buyer before getting into the knitting business.
Needless to say he has a passion for wool and as a result sources exclusively from extra-long staple fibres. This makes cloth that is softer, smoother and also more resistant to pilling. Additionally our merino wool is now single-origin, sourced entirely from farms in central NSW around Dubbo.
For the wool geeks in the house, our superfine merino wool jersey comes exclusively from ewes' fleece and is guaranteed to have no neck, belly or crutchings.
So whilst it is slightly more expensive than before, the difference is notable and we guarantee you'll fall in love (as we have). Our superfine merino wool jersey is available all year round in black plus gorgeous, limited edition colours that change every winter.