What about Merino wool denim?

As denim continues to remain one of the world’s most popular fabrics, it was only a matter of time before brands began incorporating a high-performance fibre such as Merino wool into their denim.

Denim is a twill fabric traditionally made from a dyed cotton warp yarn with an undyed weft yarn. Previous attempts to create wool/cotton blends in denim have used an intimate blend of wool with cotton - two fibres which are not easy to combine in a yarn. Yet production developments including the use of machine washable wool yarns have led to a more cost-effective way to produce Wool Denim without having to intimately blend wool with cotton.

The Woolmark Company has worked with development partners to produce a wool/cotton denim blend which uses exactly the same warp yarn as traditional denim, but replaces some, or all, of the weft yarns with machine-washable wool. The fabrics are finished the same as traditional denim, so you can rest assured style won’t be compromised, plus you gain all the natural benefits associated with wool.

Previous attempts to create wool blends in denim have used an intimate blend of wool with cotton – two fibres which are not easy to combine in a yarn. Yet by replacing some, or all, of the weft yarns with machine washable Merino wool, a higher performance and more cost effective fabric can be produced. Because the wool yarns being used are 100 per cent pure, consumers benefit from the fibre’s attributes, including its natural resilience and elasticity to create new textures, drape and next-to-skin comfort, and most importantly, an increase in the level of warmth in your denim apparel.

www.woolmark.com