MIDDLEBURY – [12.01.09] US-based organic wool provider Vermont Organic Fiber Company (VTOF) will show a new range of shrink-proof washable organic wool fabrics at the upcoming Outdoor Retailer exhibition in Salt Lake City, which it says is a first in the USA.
The new ‘O-Wool Washable,’ is the nation‘s first washable wool fabrics made with organic wool grown and certified to the strict U.S. Department of Agriculture‘s (USDA) organic standard.
"While washable wool in general is becoming more widely available, O-Wool Washable comes from sheep raised to the USDA‘s organic livestock standards and is processed in a more environmentally friendly manner than any other washable wool product available today," said Matthew Mole, VTOF president. "As the market for sustainable fibers grows, more and more companies were asking us for washable wool fabrics made with organic wool, so we created a product that would have the least environmental footprint and the best quality possible."
The company, which already supplies its O-Wool to well-known brands and retailers such as J. Crew, Loomstate and Patagonia says the washable organic wool fabric is now available in three outdoor apparel weights, (150g/m2, 220g/m2, and 250g/m2). It is produced using the recently developed ‘3e-WOOL’ process to prevent O-Wool from shrinking and ‘felting’ during washing. This process, which meets the IWS TM 31 standards for machine washability, uses hydrogen peroxide and mechanical action instead of chlorine (which is harmful to the environment). In addition, the process is also said to use just one-third of the water normally used by traditional chlorine-based shrink-proof treatments and is certified to Oeko-Tex Standard 100.
O-Wool yarns and fabrics are made from certified organic Merino wool spun, knit, woven, and finished at facilities in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. Woolen spinning in the U.S. is certified to the new Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) as is worsted spinning carried out with partner mills in China.