Shear magic

It is rare that, upon entrance to a clothes shop, one is encouraged to touch everything in sight. It is rarer still that a shop has a room entirely covered with wool, as if you are having a pleasant snooze inside a sheep’s coat. But that’s just the Sheep Inc. philosophy: the brand is pleasingly nerdy about the sheep that provide wool for their range of sweaters, puffer jackets, and sweatpants. 

Sourcing their wool entirely from New Zealand farms, the brand prides itself on its carbon-negative footprint, meaning the creation of their garments removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is emitted. Every garment has a scannable NFC tag called a Connected Dot, which lets you know how your item was made and how much carbon was involved in its production. You can also delve deep into micron counts, abrasion scores, and what spinner was used in the creation of your item, but if that’s not of interest, you can also see which specific sheep provided the wool for your item, and gush over how cute they are.

The brand is thinking about the sensory realm beyond touch. Their garments come in a range of colours – my favourite items were their brightly accented V-necks and beautifully designed cardigans – and the kind shop assistant recommended spraying them with cedar oil to fight off any pesky moths. To strengthen this sensory connection, the brand hosted a scent-making workshop led by self-taught perfumer Maya Njie, whose scent Voyeur Verde I have been obsessed with all summer. She opened the workshop by taking us through how perfumes are structured: fresher, more volatile materials like citrus and green notes are used as top notes, followed by the longer-lasting heart notes, materials like iris and rose. Base notes, the longest lasting, include woods, resins, and musks, the latter of which acts as a fixative, ensuring perfumes last longer on the skin. 

Then it was time for testing. Maya dipped test strips into a whole range of bottles and made us guess what each note was. A summer spent working in a cafe making Earl Grey cake meant I could identify bergamot immediately, but other notes like neroli and tuberose proved more elusive. The biggest surprise was civet: an essence that was once made from glandular secretions from the titular animal, but today is (thankfully) synthetically made. In isolation, it smelled strongly urinary, apparently due to the presence of compounds called indoles, but in small doses, I was promised it would be less intense.

Next, our own formulations. Inspired by a forest walk I had done over the weekend, I endeavoured to make a fragrance inspired by trees, from root to leaf. On top of a base of cashmere musk, I mixed together leaf extract, a tomato leaf accord and sandalwood extract in equal parts until I had a gorgeously fragrant juice: it reminded me of childhood memories of climbing trees. Yet it was missing a certain je ne sais quoi, something to bring it to life. At which point, I spotted Maya’s bottle of civet and put a good few pipettes-full into the formulation. She was right: the fragrance took on a whole new attitude and sex appeal, rounding out some of those green notes, while adding a resonant depth to the woods. I was thrilled with the result, which I named “Root to Rise”, in reference to the tree that inspired its creation. 

My fragrance needs about 3 weeks to marinate and mature, so until then, I’ll have to content myself with the memory of that cocoon-like wool room. It feels fitting that a brand so invested in transparency and time would pair itself with the slow alchemy of perfume. Both wool and scent reward patience; both come alive through wear. Sustainability does not have to be a hair-shirt compromise; it can be a pleasure-rich experience too. If this is what the future of fashion smells like, I’m more than happy to breathe it in.

The Sheep Inc. store is at 5 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RG.