Groundbreaking technology has led to the production and website launch of what’s believed to be the world’s first machine-washable, ultrafine merino wool range for pregnant women and babies.
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Gostwyck Merino launched its new line, henry & grace, on-property last Friday, with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce doing the official honours.
The man behind the magic is business director, Philip Attard, who has collaborated with the Sheep CRC to produce one of the finest wool garments on the market.
The micron of wool in the garments has been graded using both laser technology and Wool ComfortMeter measurements.
Sheep CRC CEO James Rowe told The Express the level of comfort was “world-best”.
“They have carefully selected and measured each fleece with a laser scan machine … that gives you the micron [the diameter of for each fleece],” he said.
“The fleeces are sorted on the basis of actual measurement of the fibre, so they know exactly which fleeces go into the yarn.
“Quite often for suiting material it’s very common to blend [microns] and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – with suiting material it’s your average micron that determines its characteristics.
“But when we come to next-to-skin knitwear, which is what this product is, then it’s really important to keep control of your microns so you don’t get coarse fibres that are going to cause a prickle.”
“What this comfort meter does – it gives you a test on the final product – and as you’re going to wear it and it actually measures the fibres that pertrude from the fabric that have the potential to cause prickle.
Mr Rowe said normally any measurement under 200 on the ComfortMeter is very comfortable – but the fact that these fabrics were coming in at under 100 just shows how good they are.
“When we collaborated that ComfortMeter we had real people wearing the garment in air conditioning comfort and then wearing it on a treadmill in a 40 degree room … measuring in the sub-200 or 100 that’s where this is still going to be comfortable and that’s what these guys have achieved,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, said it was great to see a local agri-business seizing an opportunity to go global.
“Local producers like the Attard family are critically important to the continued growth of the $60 billion Australian agriculture industry,” he said.
Producers like the Attard family are critically important to the continued growth of the Australian agriculture industry.
- Barnaby Joyce
