Firstly, we source the yarn and work with our Melbourne based knitters on which weight and quantity is going to give the best outcome for a range of leggings and tops. We are committed to making in Australia and want to continue supporting our textiles industry by having our fabric made locally.
Nylon is usually added to merino to give the fabric overall strength, and it typically takes at least 50 years to break down. We found this new biodegradable nylon material and had it blended at 13% with superfine merino to knit into single jersey. We split the quantity to have 2 different jerseys created. One half was knitted into a lightweight t-shirt fabric (without stretch), and the other half into a different weight that is suitable for leggings with stretch. We then split them into 5 different dye lots, working with a local dye house to achieve this.
We research and cost out this new fibre from production of the yarn, to the garment manufacturing, to see if it was viable for production. Making tweaks on the fit of these basic layers so they become more versatile for the wearing - (ie a more flattering fit means they can be worn not only as a base layer)
The prints developed and chosen for this range are all created locally and depict flora local to our studio in Northcote. Our colours and prints are collected and considered over the year until the right combinations are decided on.