FORTY of the world’s most luxurious suits to be fashioned this year will come from the wool grown on the backs of a 10,500-head Merino flock in Victoria.
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Last Friday, Lexton wool producers Robert and Pamela Sandlant, Pyrenees Park, were presented with the World Wool Record Challenge Cup, bestowed by Italian fashion house Loro Piana for the finest bale of wool to come out of Australia and New Zealand each year.
Their 11-micron bale tied with the finest bale from NZ, but a panel of judges from the Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association and New Zealand Stud Merino Breeders’ Society broke the deadlock based on the quality of the fleece.
The Sandlant bale had a staple length of 72 millimetres, but it was the fibre’s strength of 38 Newtons per Kilotex which helped it trump the finest bale from NZ.
The fourth generation wool producers were humbled by the achievement, after winning the Australian part to the competition for the first time last year.
“As far as we were concerned it was a tie with the NZ bale… but any time you can beat the Kiwis at something it’s good isn’t it,” Mr Sandlant joked.
While he preferred not to disclose the value the bale sold to Loro Piana for, the family have had negotiated contracts with Loro Piana for several years, and are happy with the price they make for the ultrafine wool.
The current dichotomy of wool’s origin and and final product were evident at the lavish award ceremony hosted by Loro Piana chief executive Pier Luigi Loro Piana at Werribee Mansion.
Last year Mr Loro Piana and his brother sold an 80 per cent share of the business to Louis Vuitton for over $2.6 billion, making the Milan-based businessman the 1115th richest man in the world, according to Forbes.
Mr Loro Piana described their luxury fashion clients as “quality maniacs”.
“We never did this venture for the profit or for the margin,” he said.
“I think it is an absolute mission to be the best. The real thing is that people know that we own the best wool in the year.”
Once spun and tailored, each of the suits made from the bale will have price tags into the tens of thousands of Euros attached.
Source: Stock & Land