Smalls steps: Your Smalls’ thrilling, surprising (and totally traceable) journey

Like many epic three-part yarns (pun intended), ours starts in New Zealand.

As our sheep roam free through the majestic, unspoilt Southern Alps, they care not that they are about to be thoroughly fleeced. (Literally.) Woolly intellects at best, their only interest is filling their bellies with all that juicy, tender emerald grass and crystalline water from those unpolluted alpine streams.

Wool needs little intervention to be transformed into your kitten-soft Smalls. But the form that intervention takes can still have significant environmental impact. Which is why we send our gathered yarn to Italy. Behind the classic Italian façade of a Biella mill is where the magic really happens. Because here the water used to make your Smalls is turned into … (honest truth!) … cleaner water! 

This enchanting family run mill also has “a complete vertical supply chain”. Now you may not be entirely sure what that is, but it sure sounds like magic… (It means we keep the lowest possible carbon footprint – Ed.) Your wool goes from raw greasy wool to Smalls fabric within 30km!

 And now, the big reveal: this was the first mill to become B-Corp certified and is the only mill IN THE WORLD to gain EMAS certification for environmental practices*.

This means that not only can we (thanks to the Italians in the suits) identify which collective of farms contributed to any specific roll of fabric but when these rolls of fabric are produced you can be assured it’s done with the utmost environmental and human care.

 The fabric is taken by road to a family-run business in northern Portugal where it is made into your beautiful Smalls. Now your Smalls are ready for the final instalment of their journey so they are wrapped (in responsibly sourced packaging) and delivered straight into your hands.

 And you both live happily (and cosily) ever after…

 * Not sure what this means? We’ll explain all in a future blog, so watch this space…