Country Road, the iconic Australian fashion label known for capturing the quintessential Australian lifestyle with their seasonal collections, has launched a campaign committed to backing Australian farmers.
A campaign video 'A Good Yarn' has been promoted through social media channels and online, focussing on their traceable wool range made from 100 per cent Australian Merino wool.
Each and every fibre of their traceable Merino knits can be mapped back to Australian farms.
To pull it off, Country Road partnered with Oritain, a technology company that scientifically traces and verifies where raw fibres come from.
Oritain maps the chemical fingerprint of most of the world's wool, allowing it to verify where a product has originated.
In turn, retailers and brands can work with Oritain to verify the origin of the wool used in their garments.
The company says its "fingerprint" traceability method cannot be forged or altered and is unique to the country of origin.
Country Road managing director, Elle Roseby, said the concept is in line with the company's commitment to greater transparency.
"We're proud to be the first Australian retailer to partner with Oritain to verify our traceability claims," Ms Roseby said.
"We are committed to providing greater visibility of where and how the materials in our products are farmed.
"Oritain takes a scientific approach to verification by mapping the world's chemical fingerprint for wool, and using this data to verify where each and every fibre of a garment originated."
Country Road first launched traceable Merino products in 2018, but Ms Roseby said this year they have gone a step further to independently and scientifically prove that the wool they have used is 100pc Australian Merino.
She said Country Road is committed to supporting Australian farmers.
"Australian wool is known worldwide as the ultimate natural fibre and premier material in luxury apparel, and we are proud to include it in our range," she said.
The campaign video features one of the Country Road suppliers, Beaufront, a Merino farm found near Launceston in Tasmania.
"Famous for both its premium Merino wool and its focus on conservation, Beaufront Station has been managed by the Von Bibra family for generations. We're glad we can use our platform to tell their story," Ms Roseby said
This is a big win for Australian farmers who will see their Merino wool being used by a large global company.
"We've got an opportunity to create an amazing garment for the fashion industry and it's coming from an animal on our farm," owner of Tasmania's Beaufront Station, Julian Von Bibra said.
"It's an amazing story in terms of a natural fibre."
Ms Roseby said the feedback from their customer has been extremely positive and they've seen a strong impact on sales since launching the campaign last week.
She said their future aim will be to increase the amount of traceable wool across the business.
"Our campaign video, 'A Good Yarn', has attracted the highest rate of online engagement of all our campaigns to date, and our customers are telling us they're proud of the work we're doing," she said.