On a recent trip to Wales I came across a woollen mill close to where I was staying. Always keen to explore locally produced fabrics I had to take a look. I wasn’t disappointed.
The mill opened in 1859 in a small village called Trefiew, where they have been spinning locally sourced wool to make fabrics the patterns for which have been handed down for generations. It was amazing to see such history in what they are doing. More amazing still I recognised one of the patterns as that of a blanket given to me by my great Aunt who was born and raised in Wales. I was told that the if the blanket I had didn’t have a boarder then it predated 1930 which it certainly does.
Walking through the weaving rooms I came across the generator that powers the mill. Not normally something I’d be hugely interested in but I was amazed to find that the whole mill was run using a water powered generator supplied by lakes further up the valley. In terms of the carbon footprint each meter of fabric creates it must be tiny. Wool from within five miles of the mill, water power producing electricity powering the looms, local plants and herbs producing the dyes. This is how material should be produced.
The low carbon footprint did leave me thinking about the fashion industry as a whole. This fabric is great and would make a fantastic overshirt or jacket however, due to the small production runs the cost of each meter is very high so there is no margin. The answer of producing more to reduce the cost per meter is one that works in a consumer driven model but one that doesn’t work in an environmentally considered one. I guess we all need to consider what goes into the production of the clothes and textiles we buy. When all this is said and done though, £96 per meter of fabric doesn’t seem much at all when it makes a blanket that is been handed down three generations…something to think about when considering the average 2.2years someone has one garment before getting rid of it.
