What I saw in the wool

Say the word wool and most people think “itch”.

But the itch is the smaller problem. The bigger one is that wool has lost its luxury market, and with it, its value. Fine wool is still some of the best material there is. What disappeared was the path between a good fleece and someone who would pay what it is worth and wear it for years.

The more I learned, the clearer it became. Most American wool no longer stays in America. It is sold overseas, much of it to China, and spun and woven there and then processed with lots of chemicals. The mills that once turned it into cloth here have closed, and the knowledge of how to do it went with them. A rancher can raise a beautiful fleece and still have no one nearby to make it into anything. When the fleece leaves as a raw commodity, so does most of its value.

I had seen this gap before. It was the cuffs again, in a different material: an extraordinary material, a skilled maker, and no bridge to the people who would value both. I knew what this wool could become, and I knew we could do the work of getting it there.

The market for fine wool has shrunk over the last two years. In that same stretch, the Kings kept raising fine sheep on the King Ranch in New Mexico. I respect them. I value working with ranchers in America, and it has been a pleasure to do business with this family.

Then I did something most people never get to do. I followed their fleece, step by step, until it was cloth. What I saw is the reason I’m doing this. I want the sheep to earn their keep, so the Kings and other ranches like them can keep raising them.

I bought the fleece in the fall of 2024. This fall, it becomes a cape.

The fleece was spun and woven in Connecticut at American Woolen, by Jacob, Arthur and Tammy. It was sewn in New York by Katie and JR. Keeping it here was the harder way, and I chose it anyway. I wanted one thing made in this country from the first fiber to the last stitch.

In thirteen years of building Etkie, nothing has been harder. We learned every step from the beginning, and a few of them twice ;)

For those of you who don’t know me. I try to stay behind the scenes most of the time because I believe the artists should be at the forefront of our business. Over the past decade, I’ve worked at the UN, Ralph Lauren and most recently as Head of Social Impact at Chloé in Paris. I watched how little of high-end goods are still made in Europe let alone in America. Making things well is slow and expensive, and very few companies still do it.

So I wanted to make one thing that felt completely unique, that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Deeply connected to New Mexico and the people and the land. King Ranch fleece, and the idea you already know Etkie for: named artists, and work made by hand.

I’ll admit the cape scared me a little. It feels risky. A coat would have been the safer choice, but we all have coats hanging in the closet. What I didn’t have was a cape.

I had a clear picture of it. Something easy to put on and very flattering. Something I could throw over anything: jeans at dinner, a serious meeting, boots on a walk in New Mexico. And I love it for travel - it’s chic yet as warm as anything gets.

Then one day in New York I tried on a $3,000 cape and thought, I can make a better one.

So I did.

The cape is the first thing we’ve made from this wool, and I’d love to know what you’d like next. A coat, a sweater, something for men, something I haven’t thought of. Hopefully we’ll make something with our next wool shearing, and I’d like you to help decide what it is. Write to me at sydney@etkie.com and tell me if you have something in mind!

Etkie has always belonged to the desert and to the cities where our customers travel. The cuffs are bought in the West and worn across the globe. Each one is woven by a named artist in New Mexico, bead by bead, more than 1,200 beads to a cuff, and it carries that place with it.

The cape is made the same way, with every maker and step named, and it is meant to mean the same thing the cuffs do - a well made product with integrity and real people behind it.

With gratitude,
Sydney