Luxury woollen fabrics find passage to India

Radford farms one of the world’s three remaining purebred mobs of Saxon sheep, and he has developed a niche market for garments with the elasticity and fine texture of the breed’s unique corkscrew-weave wool.

The fabric is marketed as Escorial, a brand that has made its mark on London’s Saville Row and is being sought by discerning buyers from Italy to Japan. Renowned tailors are lining up to buy reams of his product for the princes, politicians, business leaders and celebrities they dress.

Now Escorial is making its long-anticipated move into India, courtesy of the weavers of Escorial fabrics, Scotland’s Reid & Taylor. The Escorial line’s India launch, in conjunction with Reid & Taylor India, will be marked with a function at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in October.

Embryonic start

Radford’s path to the fashion industry began when the North Canterbury sheep farmer travelled to Tasmania on a bank scholarship in the late 1960s. At the Campbelltown Show, he observed tailors who had made garments from the finely crimped wool of Saxon sheep. “It stuck in my mind for 15 years, until the late 1980s, when I had a chance to buy some embryos and bring them to New Zealand.”

The embryos he bought were direct descendants of the original flock of Saxon sheep, which had migrated from Spain to Germany to Australia and now New Zealand over hundreds of years of farming. The lineage of Radford’s three flocks – two in New Zealand, one in Australia, totalling 35,000 head – can be traced back to the 1600s.

“Those are the only three flocks that are absolutely pure in the world.”

Radford experimented with trials on the wool, developed some knitwear and underwear, and he could see then the wool had a natural elasticity. What began as a hobby – a labour of love built on a determination to continue the pure Saxon breed – has now developed into an exclusive product.

“We’ve priced it at the absolute top end of the fabric market in the world. It’s spun in England, woven in Scotland, and supplied to Italian suit makers, United States suit makers, Japanese suit makers.”

One such buyer is Brooks Brothers in the United States, which uses Radford’s other brand, SaxXon, in an exclusive range of one-off, made-to-measure suits. In a 100 million-dollar deal, announced this month, the wool will be sold through 260 Brooks Brothers stores. The wool will first be processed into fabric in Italy, then shipped to the United States for the garment trade. Radford says the deal equates to $22/kg at the farm gate.

Radford, 63, has given up day-to-day farming to concentrate on his burgeoning company and daughter Olivia Radford is Escorial’s brand and marketing manager.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Christchurch business service manager Maureen Manson says Escorial is recognised for its reliability and consistency.

“Escorial always looks the same. It’s lightweight enough for all climates, but it has a very tailored look.”