Gelong Wool: The Cashmere Alternative Worth Knowing
How Australia came to have the finest wool in the world, why a lamb's first shearing is softer than any other, and what SuperGelong is in ATELIER 23 knitwear.
There is a wool that Biella names after the port it used to come from: Geelong, in the state of Victoria, in southern Australia. At the nineteenth-century London auctions the word Geelong meant the finest and most expensive merino of everything arriving by ship, and it has been attached ever since to the wool of the first shearing of Australian lambs. That is the name it carries on the labels of our knitwear: SuperGelong, from Zegna Baruffa.
Merinos reached Australia in 1797, thirteen head from Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and no other country ever suited the breed so well. Dry climate, sparse grass and enormous pasture gave a finer fibre than Spain or France, and by the middle of the nineteenth century Australia had become Europe's principal supplier of fine wool. Almost all the extrafine wool spun in Biella today is still Australian.
The first shearing: why a lamb is softer
The secret of Gelong is age. A lamb is shorn for the first time at six or seven months, and that wool has a property no later shearing will ever have again: the tip of the fibre has never been cut. It tapers naturally to a point, like a brush, and so it does not prickle. An adult sheep is shorn with shears, the cut end is blunt, and it is precisely those blunt ends we feel as a prickle. In first-shearing wool there is no prickle at all.
SuperGelong runs at about 19 microns, like cashmere, and it is woollen-spun: the fibres stay intertwined, without the comb that lays them parallel for suiting yarns, and the cloth comes out lofty, warm and light. That is how cashmere is knitted, and it is how SuperGelong is knitted. Hence the similarity in the hand that everyone notices.
SuperGelong or Cashwool: which to choose
These are the two knits of the house, and they are made for different lives. SuperGelong comes from the first shearing of an Australian merino lamb: it is the softer of the two at first touch, and that softness is why it goes straight onto the skin without a second thought. Cashwool is extrafine merino yarn spun in Biella by Zegna Baruffa: a little firmer in the hand, more resilient under daily wear, and it exists in more shapes, from the polo to the zip polo.
In practice you choose by the number of days. If the sweater is going to leave the wardrobe three or four times a week, sometimes under a jacket, Cashwool takes that rhythm better, and it is set out in Cashwool by Zegna Baruffa. If the piece is for the days when you want something soft against the skin and nothing over it, it is SuperGelong.
For a man who wants both, the order we suggest is this: a grey mélange SuperGelong first, then a navy Cashwool. Between them they cover nearly everything a year asks for.
SuperGelong in ATELIER 23 knitwear
In SuperGelong we knit crew-neck sweaters in three colours: black, brown and grey melange. They are knitted at our own workshop with Zegna Baruffa yarn, the same Piedmont house that makes the Cashwool for our navy, grey and beige sweaters and polos. The difference between the two yarns is felt with the hand: Cashwool is smooth and springy, SuperGelong is lofty and warm, closer to cashmere.
The SuperGelong sweater is, to us, the principal garment of a cold day without a jacket. It warms like cashmere and is not afraid, as cashmere is, of a rucksack, a car or three days running. Under a coat it replaces both the shirt and the jacket, and with flannel trousers it looks dressed where an ordinary sweater looks domestic.
The first weeks
A knit in a natural fibre raises a little fuzz over the first two or three wears, mostly where the arm rubs the body. It is not a fault and not a sign of weak yarn: it is the short surface fibres letting go. Run a knit comb or a pilling stone over it once, always in the same direction, and the piece stops doing it.
After that SuperGelong asks for very little: wear it with a day in between so the wool can recover its shape, and keep it folded, because a hanger drops the shoulders of any knit. The full washing and summer storage routine is set out in Cashwool by Zegna Baruffa and applies to both.
If you are looking for a first piece in SuperGelong, take the grey mélange. It works with a jacket and without one, with grey flannel and with denim, and it takes a single day to become the thing you reach for most. It is in knitwear with the others.
The first shearing happens once in an animal's life. That is the whole of the difference you feel in the hand.ATELIER 23
Questions before ordering
What is Gelong wool?
Wool from the first shearing of Australian merino lambs, named after the port of Geelong in Victoria. The fibre is around 19 microns and its tip has never been cut, so it does not prickle and comes close to cashmere in the hand.
What is SuperGelong?
A yarn from Zegna Baruffa Lane Borgosesia made from that extrafine wool, woollen-spun. It is what the ATELIER 23 sweaters in black, brown and grey melange are knitted from.
How does Gelong wool differ from cashmere?
Cashmere is more delicate and asks for more care. Gelong wool gives a similar feeling on the skin while holding its shape, pilling less and standing daily wear.
Does Gelong wool knitwear prickle?
No. In first-shearing wool the fibre tips are uncut and taper naturally, so it is worn against the skin.
How should a SuperGelong sweater be cared for?
Hand or delicate wash at 30 degrees, dried flat on a horizontal surface and stored folded.
Where is the ATELIER 23 atelier?
Avenida da Liberdade 110, office 209, Lisbon. By appointment, seven days a week.
SuperGelong in the catalogue: Black Sweater · Brown Sweater · Melange Sweater
Book a visit to ATELIER 23
We show the SuperGelong sweaters beside cashmere and beside Cashwool, and settle the size and colour against your own jacket. The visit takes about half an hour.