Planet Earth Sweater

The Planet Earth Sweater is made from a blend of superfine Merino wool that’s evolved to survive scorching summers and freezing winters, and ultrasoft cashmere grown on the grasslands of the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe. The result is a sweater that’s thermoregulating, breathable, elastic, naturally water repellent, and crease resistant.

Merino sheep are bred to survive scorching summers and freezing winters, so the fibres of their wool respond and adapt to the conditions you find yourself in – either trapping or releasing heat depending on the temperature and humidity of your skin.

Merino stops you overheating in higher temperatures as it simply releases its warmth if you’re getting too hot. Merino wool has to keep sheep cool even when the temperature goes over 30°C, so the Merino fibre naturally absorbs the moisture from sweat and disperses it to start releasing heat.

We add 10% cashmere to our Merino to make the Planet Earth Sweater even softer. Known as ‘The Golden Fleece,’ cashmere is one of the world’s softest and rarest materials. While a sheep will produce around 3kg of wool each year, a cashmere goat will only grow about 200 grams. And that’s because they only shed their fleece once a year, and the softest fibres are only combed from their underbellies.

We get our cashmere from the fleeces of Hircus Laniger goats that graze on the vast grasslands of the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe. Stretching over 800,000 square kilometres, they experience some of the harshest winters on Earth – where temperatures can be -50°C for consecutive days, and recurring natural disasters like ‘the dzud’ even have their own name. While people developed yurts to survive, the goats developed an incredibly thick fleece. Today every cashmere goat has a thick and rugged outer layer that protects a warm and ultrasoft undercoat. And it’s this undercoat which produces the cashmere fibres that we use to create this sweater.

The outside of every Merino fibre is covered in a natural wax coating which makes it water repellent when you’re outside. At the same time the Merino acts like a sponge to soak up sweat and spread it over a massive surface area so that it evaporates at high speed. And as Merino can absorb over 30% of its own weight in water and still feel dry, you’ll stay warm and insulated.

It’s not sweat that smells, or even the clothes themselves, it’s the build-up of bacteria on the surface of the clothes. Merino is naturally odour resistant – odour molecules are absorbed and locked into the centre of the fibre of the Merino so you simply can’t smell them. They’re then released when you wash the sweater.

While cashmere and Merino are amazing materials, they have to be made ethically and in the right way. To create the Planet Earth Sweater we work with Cariaggi, one of Italy’s most renowned mills that’s famous for producing some of the world’s softest yarns. They’re certified by the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), an independent body committed to protecting the welfare and livelihood of the animals and herders, as well as preserving and restoring the land they graze and work on.