As the win­ter sea­son approach­es, it’s impor­tant to stay warm and cozy. One way to do this is by choos­ing cloth­ing and acces­sories made from wool. But not all wool is cre­at­ed equal. To get the most out of your woolen cloth­ing, it’s impor­tant to choose bean­ies made from eth­i­cal wool.

This lat­est weeks of cold have inspired me to make a selec­tion of new acces­sories made of wool and made in Europe com­plete­ly. This selec­tion is ful­ly eth­i­cal yet afford­able as it will warmth you for years to come.

Eth­i­cal­ly-sourced wool comes from sheep that are treat­ed humane­ly and raised in sus­tain­able, envi­ron­men­tal­ly-friend­ly con­di­tions. This means that the sheep are not sub­ject­ed to unnec­es­sary harm, such as mulesing, and are allowed to graze on healthy pas­tures. Hon­est-sourced wool is also free from harm­ful chem­i­cals, such as pes­ti­cides and her­bi­cides, that can be dam­ag­ing to the envi­ron­ment and to the peo­ple who han­dle the wool.

Wool is a sus­tain­able, biodegrad­able and recy­clable nat­ur­al fiber. It stores warmth while being flame retar­dant. It is one of the best mate­ri­als for these days and can actu­al­ly be recy­cled!

Unrecorded

First of all, we are going to cov­er your ears and head, with a clas­sic wool beanie, as offered by the brands Unrecord­ed and Col­or­ful Stan­dard. The first, Unrecord­ed, is designed in Ams­ter­dam and it offers many time­less basic gar­ments, afford­able pieces made con­scious­ly to last in your wardrobe.

Colorful Standard

The sec­ond, Col­or­ful Stan­dard lives with the same phi­los­o­phy, offer­ing basics in a great vari­ety of colours, all dyed with a nat­ur­al not pol­lut­ing process.

Both brands have their pro­duc­tion sites in Por­tu­gal, one of the biggest pro­duc­ers of sus­tain­able fash­ion. The clas­si­cal cut will adjust nice­ly to your head, offer­ing a com­fort and prac­ti­cal­i­ty you need in order to move through the win­ter.

Näz

For our next brand, Näz, we are stay­ing in Por­tu­gal, with a local pro­duc­tion and a process with the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Glob­al Recy­cled Stan­dard, giv­ing wool a new life. You will recog­nise it with their cute small leaf logo in all its prod­ucts, ensur­ing the care for the plan­et.

Rifo Lab

Our next brand, the Ital­ian Rifo Lab, uses a dif­fer­ent, even more sus­tain­able mate­r­i­al: recy­cled cash­mere. Cash­mere has all the amaz­ing qual­i­ties of wool with even more soft­ness and dura­bil­i­ty. The fiber has been treat­ed after an ini­tial use to recov­er all its prop­er­ties so you can give it a new life.

Now you have fresh ideas to keep your heat up dur­ing the whole sea­son, and for years of cold­ness to come. A “valeur sûre” for your per­ma­nent wardrobe.

Enjoy!