Textile recycling specialist converts Savile Row tailors’ waste to create luxury wool fabric for Wool Month

Yorkshire-based textile reprocessing firm, iinouiio, which was acquired by global textile manufacturer Camira in 2022, has recycled 200kg of material waste from Savile Row tailors, to innovate a new circular wool fabric, which will be unveiled during Wool Month in October 2023.

The only textile recycling capability of its kind in the UK, iinouiio, collaborated with the Campaign for Wool, which was founded by His Majesty King Charles III in 2010, (when he was HRH The Prince of Wales) Eco-Luxe, and Scotland-based micro mill, Woven in the Bone to create a luxury herringbone cloth, which will be showcased at Holland & Sherry, Savile Row.

Commenting on the project, founder of iinouiio, Dr John Parkinson said: “It has been an incredibly exciting project to work on and we’re delighted it will come to fruition during Wool Month, which is a key event for us to demonstrate and promote responsible textile manufacturing, with the aim of breathing new life into discarded textiles.

“Wool recycling is not a new concept; around 200 years ago mill owner Benjamin Law transformed discarded rags into new cloth and initiated textile’s first circular economy, known as ‘shoddy,’ manufacturing. My life has been consumed by recycling textiles and we are determined to preserve and improve upon this craft’s impressive heritage and the legacy of my own family’s ‘shoddy’ business.” 

To produce the Savile Row cloth, the tailors’ waste was recycled and blended using iinouiio’s advanced textile reprocessing machinery and then spun into yarn at Camira’s manufacturing site in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, before being woven at Woven in The Bone in Scotland.

During the launch, Savile Row tailors will display garments, products and homeware items created with the new recycled wool cloth.

Su Thomas, the founder at Eco-Luxe added: “The tailoring houses on Savile Row have always strived towards sustainable methods in their craft, with recycling, repurposing and repairing as some of their core values. Eco-Luxe takes these efforts a step further by collaborating with Savile Row companies on producing bespoke garments, accessories and textiles from recycled wool cloth made entirely of wool off-cuts. It has been fantastic to work with iinouiio and Camira to innovate a truly closed loop textile which we’re incredibly excited to see launch during Wool Month.”

A step forward for the fashion industry, the project is the start of zero-waste tailoring and highlights the tailor’s recognition and importance of reducing textile waste that goes to landfill.

Peter Ackroyd, COO at The Campaign for Wool commented: “The Campaign for Wool is delighted to see the development of a scheme to ensure tailors on the Row spare no effort in ensuring almost zero waste occurs in the already ecologically efficient creation of bespoke clothing. To see further life given to what would be considered waste is particularly encouraging. Wool, unlike the vast majority of fibres, at the very end of its life, is perfectly biodegradable and if buried, actually enriches the soil”.