How to make wool last a decade

Wool is closer to skin than to fabric: it breathes, recovers and repairs itself — if you let it. Here’s the whole routine, and it’s mostly about doing less.

Air, don’t wash. After a wear, hang the piece by an open window for an hour. Wool sheds odours and moisture on its own; a season of normal wear needs one, maybe two washes. Every skipped wash is a year added to the garment’s life.

Rest a day between wears. Fibres compressed at the elbows and shoulders spring back overnight. Two coats worn alternately outlive three coats worn daily — the maths favours the rail.

Brush, monthly. A natural-bristle clothes brush, downward strokes, five minutes. It lifts dust out of the weave before dust becomes dullness.

When you must wash: hand wash, cool, a capful of wool detergent, no wringing. Press the water out in a towel and dry flat — hanging wet knitwear is how sleeves become tentacles.

And when something gives — a hem, a button, an elbow going thin — that’s not the end, that’s our job. Repairs are free for life on everything we cut. Send it back; it returns mended, with the story intact.