A few weeks before being announced as the new creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier, Duran Lantink received the Woolmark 2025 Award. Dutch and talented Dutch designer had applied his experience and vision of volumes disproportionately swollen to a wool creation. Each year, this event organized by Woolmark Company, the representative agency of the Australian wool industry, rewards contemporary design, with an endowment of 300,000 Australian dollars (around 172,000 euros). It is also an opportunity to promote the properties of this natural fiber, in the heart of a broader commitment.
In addition to its promotional activities in the premium and luxury fashion sectors, Woolmark Company is also working to protect an entire industry, which provides a livelihood for many family farms throughout the continent. This implies applied research projects, such as the recent development of its “denim laboratory”, as well as a great effort to organize the industry and raise its profile.
In this regard, evaluating the impact of the material of the material is an important challenge. Damien Pommeret, representative of the organization in Western Europe, reviews the initiatives undertaken by Woolmark Company and its innovation center. In particular, he details his participation in the 'Make the Label Count' initiative, launched in 2021 with other players in the textile sector. As Europe advances with the validation of new environmental evaluation tools, in particular the PEF (Environmental freence product) And the French method: this approach assumes the strategic weight today.
Fashionnetwork.com: After years of consultation, Europe has just validated advances in methodologies to evaluate the environmental cost of textiles. However, with certain approaches, the calculation could favor the materials derived from the petrochemical industry to the detriment of natural materials. Was this a problem for you?
Damien Pommeret: We started sounding the alarm more than three years ago. We participate in the creation of 'Make the label count'To defend The advantages of the use of renewable and biodegradable fibers and to highlight the harmful effects of microplastic pollution. At first, we were practically alone, but the cotton sectors and other natural materials realized that there were aligned messages. Above all, he realized that we were small compared to other lobbies.
FNW: And now?
DP: Natural materials begin to connect. Initially, marks and supply chains saw this as a pure risk, thinking that the problems were different. The aspect of collaboration was complex. Especially because working on technical details requires a lot of time and dedicated people. But now it is more concrete. The fact that we create “tagCount “, which was not linked to a specific material, allows us to get involved. The cotton industry contributes funds. The coalition of 64 members is increasing weight with the authorities, particularly in Europe.
FNW: In concrete terms, what does this mean for an industry like wool, represented by Woolmark?
DP: It already has weight with the Australian government and the wool industry. To change the approaches, we have to share data with the French government. These data had not been consolidated to share and provide very detailed information about the Australian wool industry. We had to overcome the legal and political fears about sharing it with Ecobalyse. But it depends on the industries to share their data. Because in reality, the French government can never know the progress made in coffee, avocados or natural textiles when it comes to establishing their results.
FNW: But how important is this data exchange?
DP: It is very important. In fact, oil -based materials have more data than natural materials, which adds value to the results in evaluation systems. Strategic impact evaluation tools were created to evaluate products produced by industries using calibrated resources. Therefore, it is not adapted to agriculture and livestock agriculture, even if we are trying to adapt it … the difficulty is that there are many different types of operations. We have to create the measurement tools and collect the data, which is much more complex. With Woolmark, we invest in these tools and follow the technologies developed by new companies to improve the situation. Because the greatest impact is on farms. But it is also where all the potential lies in protecting water resources and biodiversity.
FNW: In concrete terms, has this exchange for information improved wool products through Ecobalyse?
DP: Yes, clearly. As they had no data, they worked with the information they had: an impact study on sheep in the United States that served as a basis for calculating all wool products. But for textiles, 85% of Merino wool comes from Australia. In Australia, sheep's breeding is extensive, with 6 to 8 animals per hectare in Semifreedom. So the impact is not the same. With our data, this reduced the impact on the final results. The challenge is now to finance the regular data collection and go into more details. Because this compromises the sector to improve and can promote customers.
FNW:Can this be applied to other natural materials?
DP: Each sector can have its own elements. For example, American cotton has all these data. The key point is that it is not just about collecting data. It has to compromise industry, breeders, farmers and polyester producers to do better, and consumers to consume better. Otherwise, it is a useless transparency. It is necessarily a political problem. The objective is not to point the finger to the industries and see people lose their jobs. The goal is to have a tool that allows us to optimize, be smarter in manufacturing and consumption.
FNW: Except that, despite the improvement, wool is not yet classified as highly as polyester …
DP: It is true that, even if the result is better, we are far from winning. For our part, we have to be transparent about the real impact of wool. But then, the criteria will have to include a projection in a new way of consuming. The life and impact of a product after its manufacture are not the same for a natural product as for petrochemical facts. And this is not yet taken into account at European level. It is a battle that needs to be freed. The other aspect is that we will have to consume less to fulfill our environmental commitments.
FNW: What do you mean by this?
DP: Let's be clear: natural materials are not the ones with the least impact are often intended for premium products. We are not going to sell a 50 -euro cotton shirt to all Indians. Each fiber has its own purpose. The objective is to be able to use fibers and products for performance at the correct level of consumption. While obviously we need to maintain affordable fashion, the problem is volume. There is a difference between accessible fashion and an industry that is unbridled in environmental and social issues. We will have to find a way to ensure that the rich classes of Europe do not consume low price products. What is the case today?“
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