Production

Technicolour unites the durability of British wool with a reduced environmental impact and a captivating colour story, exploring the intersection between humankind and nature.

Technicolour is a monomaterial woven from 100% new English worsted wool.
Known for its inherent strength, the wool is locally sourced to reduce transport emissions and support the local wool trade. Furthermore, the manufacturing process also minimises environmental impact as across the full colour palette, 30% of the wool is undyed. This means that whilst some colourways are fully dyed, others are only partially dyed, which also significantly reduces the quantity of dyes and chemicals used.

Technicolour is the first textile created from start to finish in-house at Wooltex, one of our longest-standing partner suppliers. This granted us the flexibility and resources to explore what is possible in terms of the textile´s colour, texture, and environmental impact.

British wool

Traditionally, many textiles were made with British wool, but over the past few decades, demand has dropped due to a variety of factors, including the fact that its natural traits were often misunderstood as imperfections. More recently, there has been a renewed appreciation for these inherent qualities. British wool features a diverse range of fibre thicknesses, and the fibre length is a little longer, contributing to a harder hand but also making it more resilient. The unique strength and resilience of British wool make it perfect for contract upholstery, and make it possible to create monomaterials that avoid the need for man-made fibres to enhance durability.

Wooltex have investigated the thickness of the yarn, the twist level and how densely the textile is woven. Within the blend for Technicolour, we add finer thicknesses of British wool, which makes it softer without reducing its durability. A further benefit lies in proximity. The British wool used in Technicolour is sourced in Bradford, just 18 kilometres from the production site. This short supply chain reduces transportation, supports local farming communities, and reinforces traceability, ensuring a transparent and thoughtful production process from fibre to final textile.

The core idea behind Technicolour is to create a textile with amazing colour vibrancy and a distinctive hand. By carrying out extensive trials in collaboration with Wooltex, we achieved a distinctive blend for Technicolour, where finer microns make it feel very soft, while keeping its strength. The finishing route has also been refined to minimise the use of water and chemicals, and to optimise the hand of the fabric.

Wooltex, co-owned by Kvadrat, is one of our longest-standing partner suppliers and is a specialist in the production of natural wool textiles. Located in a part of the UK that has been at the heart of textile manufacturing for centuries, it is a place where tradition and innovation go hand in hand. Wooltex collaborates closely with the design team at Kvadrat to push the boundaries of textile design. As part of this journey, the mill has driven vertical integration, insourced all the production processes, and upgraded its machinery to minimise energy and water use.

Production

British wool

Inspiration

Peter Saville