Hi-tech softening enzymes offer hope of revival for Scottish wool industry
In a laboratory in Edinburgh, carefully selected enzymes are right now breaking down a sheep’s fleece in the name of science.
In a world-first research project that advocates for native textiles believe could catalyse a revival of the Scottish wool industry, researchers are exploring ways to treat the coarser fleece that is usually produced by hill-farmed flocks to make it more suitable for clothing.
The project is a collaboration between the youngest and oldest millers in Scotland, the zero-waste designers Prickly Thistle and the centuries-old luxury weavers Johnstons of Elgin.
“Wool is such an incredible fibre, but we haven’t applied any 21st-century science to it in this country. We just ask, ‘Is it thick or thin, it is soft or itchy?’” says Clare Campbell, Prickly Thistle’s Highlands-based founder, speaking from a pop-up store in Chelsea where she has spent London fashion week urging fellow designers to “make every fleece count”.
The research, which is being conducted by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, has identified three enzymes that have the potential to naturally alter the structure of wool when applied in a controlled way to achieve thinner, softer fibres.
“Now we are looking at the manufacturing reality of that beyond a lab, how will it work at a larger scale, will it still have the tensile strength to use in weaving?” says Campbell.
With merino sourced largely from Australia and cashmere from China, the majority of soft wools for clothing manufacture are imported despite, as Campbell points out, Scotland having wool available in abundance as a byproduct of farming sheep for their meat.
But fleece from flocks reared on more mountainous terrain and in
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