Fashion brand Stella McCartney has worked with Italian worsted spinner Zegna Baruffa to develop a Cradle to Cradle certified gold level product. This is a wool yarn and it will feature in Stella McCartney’s ready-to-wear collections and accessories. It has been produced without the use of pesticides, by optimisation of textile dye chemistry and so improving the health, safety and environmental profile of the wool fiber.
The certification marks the fashion industry’s first gold level Cradle to Cradle certification for a wool yarn. The initiative’s aim is to accelerate the fashion industry’s trajectory towards circular design through the collaborative development of circular building block materials.
Stella McCartney selected wool yarn as its first certified gold product because of the continuity of this raw material used in products from year-to-year, across categories and collections, including men’s and women’s ready-to-wear and accessories.
Every step of wool production was scrutinised, beginning with the strict selection of farmers and the avoidance of toxic pesticides, and the careful monitoring of the use of detergents, leveling agents, biocides and processing chemicals. As a result, more than 70 per cent of the yarn’s chemistry was optimized.
Stella McCartney is among an influential group of brands working together to lead the industry towards more responsible, sustainable and circular practices.
