By Porter Lang
Turn the jumper inside out. The label is usually at the back of the neck or in the side seam, and it carries the one piece of information a seller is obliged to give you about the cloth: what it is made of. Before you buy knitwear as a gift this winter, it helps to know which of the words you might find there have a rule behind them and which do not.
We read two sources for this piece: a guidance document on the UK’s 2012 textile labelling regulations, hosted by the trade body UKFT, and Wikipedia’s articles on the Woolmark and on lambswool. That is a thin base for a consumer topic, and we say so below.
What the label has to tell you
The guidance says only fibre names from an approved list may be used, with percentages. Where one fibre makes up less than 15 per cent of the product, its name may be listed without a percentage, but only if the others carry theirs. Fibres at 5 per cent or less individually, or 15 per cent or less together, may be grouped as “other fibres” with their total. The stated figure may differ from the real content by up to 3 per cent. Labelling applies to products made wholly of textile fibres, and to some others with at least 80 per cent textile fibre by weight. A product with non-textile parts of animal origin must say “Contains non-textile parts of animal origin.”
The guidance puts the duty on the manufacturer to give the composition to the customer. It says retailers are responsible for making sure what they sell carries the information, and should get the details from their supplier.
“Pure” and “100%”
According to the guidance, “pure”, “all” and “100%” may be used only if the product is made of one type of fibre. It allows small exceptions, up to 2 per cent inadvertent impurities (5 per cent where carding decides how the fibre forms) and up to 2 per cent anti-static fibres. Using these words is optional. A garment that is wholly cotton may simply say “cotton.”
“Wool” is wider than sheep
This is the part that surprises people. The guidance says the word “wool” may describe fibre from the fleeces of sheep or lambs, or a mixture of that fibre with certain fine animal hairs: alpaca, llama, camel, cashmere, mohair, angora, vicuna, yak, guanaco, beaver and otter. A product may be labelled “100% wool” even if it contains a mix of these, although the guidance says a higher-value fibre such as cashmere should be named separately if it makes up the larger share. Our reading: a “100% wool” label tells you the fibre family, not the breed or the animal, and if the animal matters to you, the label is the start of a question and not the end.
“New wool” and “virgin wool”
The guidance says “fleece wool” and “virgin wool” may be used only for a product made solely of wool fibre that has not previously been in a finished product, has not been spun or felted beyond what manufacture requires, and has not been damaged by any process or use beyond what manufacture requires. Such a product may contain up to 0.3 per cent fibrous impurities, 7 per cent decorative fibres and 2 per cent anti-static fibres. For mixed products using these terms, wool must be at least 25 per cent of the total weight, and all the wool must meet the conditions above.
“New wool” is a different matter. The guidance says the term is used more widely in the UK than “fleece wool” or “virgin wool”, and it does not define it. We cannot tell from this one document whether “new wool” is governed by the same conditions as “virgin wool”. The guidance does not say, and neither do we.
“Pure new wool” and the Woolmark
Of “pure new wool”, the guidance says only that it is normally associated with the Woolmark, a certification trade mark used under licence. The Regulations do not mention it, and it may continue to be used as before.
Wikipedia tells the mark’s story. The International Wool Secretariat, founded in 1937, launched the logo in August 1964, after a competition in 1963 won by the Milan graphic artist Francesco Saroglia, a name Wikipedia says is most probably a pseudonym of Franco Grignani. The aim, it says, was to put wool at the top of the textile market and to make sure labelled products were pure new wool and not blended with synthetic fibres. It says the Secretariat became The Woolmark Company in 1997, a subsidiary since 2007 of Australian Wool Innovation, a nonprofit funded by about 60,000 woolgrowers, which licenses the mark as a certification mark. Wikipedia quotes that body as saying the mark assures a product is made of “100% pure new wool”, and gives no further definition.
“Lambswool” and “Shetland”
The guidance says “lambswool” is not defined. It lists the word with “Shetland wool” and “botany wool” as terms in general use that may continue to be used. Wikipedia gives a definition anyway: wool of 50 millimetres or shorter from the first shearing of a sheep, taken at around seven months. Its only citation for that is an Australian wool trade code of practice from 2010 to 2012, and it states no legal definition. So the soft, short-fibre idea of lambswool is a trade convention. On the guidance’s account it is not a legal test, and a label is not obliged to meet it.
Dates in order
- 1937: International Wool Secretariat founded, according to Wikipedia.
- 1963: logo competition, according to Wikipedia.
- August 1964: Woolmark logo launched, according to Wikipedia.
- 1997: the Secretariat becomes The Woolmark Company, according to Wikipedia.
- 2007: The Woolmark Company becomes a subsidiary of Australian Wool Innovation, according to Wikipedia.
- 2012: the Regulations that the guidance explains.
Side by side
The guidance treats “pure new wool” as a trade-mark phrase outside the Regulations. Wikipedia treats the Woolmark as an assurance of “100% pure new wool” under the owner’s own standards. Both can be true. One is law and the other is a licence. Our reading: when a label shows the logo, the licence is making the promise; when it shows only the words, ask who is.
What kind of sources these are
A trade body’s hosted guidance document, dated 2012 and written about the regulations as they then stood, which refer to a European Union regulation. Rules in the UK may have changed since, and we have not checked the current text. And Wikipedia, which anyone can edit. We read no Trading Standards page and no brand’s own claims.
Questions a buyer would ask
What fibres are listed, and in what percentages? Is the word “wool” covering anything other than sheep? Is there a certification logo, or only words? Does the seller say who is making the “pure new wool” claim? Is it spun and knitted in the place the seller names? We make no claim about warmth, softness or washing, because our sources do not.
What we left out
We left out recycled wool, which the guidance does not address. We left out care advice, prices and any named brand or mill.
Quick answers
Does “pure new wool” mean 100% wool? According to UKFT-hosted guidance, the phrase is normally associated with the Woolmark and is not in the Regulations. Wikipedia quotes the mark’s owner as saying it assures “100% pure new wool.”
What is lambswool? Wikipedia says wool of 50 millimetres or shorter from a sheep’s first shearing, at about seven months. The UKFT-hosted guidance says the term is not defined in the regulations.
Can a label say “100% wool” if it contains cashmere? The guidance says “wool” may include sheep’s fleece fibre mixed with certain fine hairs, cashmere among them, though a larger share of a higher-value fibre should be named separately.
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