BRITISH WOOL
Our British wool is sourced from farmers based in Yorkshire and spun locally. We use a mixed yarn that comes from two types of British breed sheep:
1. The Bluefaced Leicester produces a relatively small weight of fleece for it's size. It is soft, lustrous, and considered one of the finest wools in the UK.
2. The Masham sheep, which produces a very long and lustrous wool that is known for it's durability.
Mixing the two gives you a both strong and soft yarn. All our OMHU garments are knitted in Leicester and sold from London. Making the trip of our British wool sweater FANØ very short, travelling less than 200 Miles from Sheep to sweater.
We are proud to support British Farmers and UK manufacturing.
ICELANDIC WOOL
Our Icelandic wool is sourced directly from Icelandic farmers, who altogether own 80% of the spinning mill, making it a cooperation, where very little profit is taken from the farmers. The spinning mill it self operates on sustainable energy and is a family-run business. They process 99% of Iceland’s wool.
For over 1000 years, the sub-arctic climate and isolation has given the Icelandic wool a distinctive character. As a breed, the Icelandic Sheep is unique. Protected by centuries of isolation since the first Viking settlers brought livestock to the island, the wool it produces remains unmatched.
The Icelandic wool is dual-coated with a combination of inner and outer fibers, which naturally creates lightweight, water-repellent and highly breathable wool yarns.
The yarn is completely mulesing-free and with a minimum use of colorants and detergents. After washing and cleaning, the wool fleece undergoes a gentle treatment at the spinning mill, ensuring premium yarns which fulfill the OEKO 100 standard and REACH regulation.
ITALIAN SPUN LAMBSWOOL
Our Lambswool is sourced from South Africa and Australia and spun in Italy. The spinner is family run and based west of Milan in Biella.
The typical softness and thermal capacity of the lambswool yarn is achieved during the traditional spinning method. The carding process brings to surface the finer fibres and traps microscopic air bubbles within the yarn making it soft, warm and lightweight.
To help ensure respect for the environment and fair treatment of animals, we only work with lambswool that is non-mulesed. The lambswool is marked Super S 100 Woolmark and STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®.
Video below shows the process lambswool undergo before it gets knitted into an OMHU sweater.
ITALIAN SPUN MERINO WOOL
Our Merino wool is sourced from New Zealand and spun in Italy. The spinner was founded in 1850 and is based west of Milan in Biella. Over decades they have refined their spinning process and quality control, a marriage between artisan skill and technical innovation, using the most updated technology in today's process. The end result is an extra fine and super soft merino wool.
Environmental sustainability and energy efficiency is their focus, maximising the purification of water, and re-using the heat generated by the dyeing in the heating of the production space. The merino is marked Traceability and Fashion, and STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®.
To help ensure respect for the environment and fair treatment of animals, we only work with Merino wool that is non-mulesed.
ITALIAN SPUN NYLON
We use one manmade fibre at OMHU. Our Icelandic wool sweaters are all made using a highly advanced double layer knitting technique, and as it stands for now the only way of combining the 2 layers is with an extremely thin thread of nylon.
Our nylon is supplied by an Italian spinner located near Florence. With a focus on sustainability, our spinner invests in renewable energy and adopt the 4sustainability® Chemical Management Protocol, implementing this with a structured methodology called the MRSL ZDHC, where they monitor the supply chain and periodically measuring the application level in a transparent way. They have signed the Detox commitment with the C.I.D. consortium for the elimination of the hazardous substances listed in the Detox protocol.
As a brand, OMHU aims to eliminate the use of manmade fibre as soon as a natural alternative becomes available that allows us to maintain the quality of our garments and their unique production techniques.