Fibre Source, Weaving

Kingston single-source Merino wool is grown entirely on the 117-year-old family-owned Kingston farm in the northern Midlands of Tasmania. The farm is a conservationist enterprise, home to 8% of all Indigenous grasslands in Tasmania and at least 12 threatened native flora & fauna. In 2021 Kingston farm was accredited as a carbon positive enterprise in an independent Natural Capital Management report. The production of a kilogram of Kingston greasy wool generates less than half the GHG international benchmark. Kingston sheep enjoy what farmer Simon Cameron (pictured right, with M.J. Bale Founder, Matt Jensen) calls ‘four freedoms’: freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; freedom from discomfort, pain, injury and disease; freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour; freedom from fear and distress. In terms of quality and consistency, Kingston wool is considered some of the finest Merino wool produced in Australia. It is soft, clean, bright and elastic. Kingston wool is regularly classed by the Australian Wool Exchange (AWX) as 1pp, a certificate created, in the words of AWX, to “recognise the few lots that have reached the pinnacle of superfine wool growing excellence.” M.J. Bale returns a percentage of every Kingston single-source wool garment sold to the farm to be reinvested into biodiversity preservation and revegetation projects.

M.J. Bale’s single-source Kingston Merino wool is woven into Super 120s and Super 150s worsted suiting fabric by the centuries-old Italian weaver, Vitale Barberis Canonico (VBC). Owned and operated by the 15th-generation of the same family, VBC is situated in Biella, within the Italian Alps, and maintains strict adherence to eco-friendly policies – in particular, water use and the revitalisation of the natural environment.