Wool producer Vanessa Bell partners with Italian spinning mills for high fashion knitwear line

Ms Bell has been working with prestigious mills Lanecardate and Tollegno 1900 and production house Ommy SRL to bring her Vanessa Bell brand to life, collaborating with fashion designer Natasha Lenart, known for her former role as knitwear designer for Victoria Beckham.

"It's just absolutely mindblowing because these are the same spinning mills that spin for clients such as Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior and Burberry," she said.

"At Ommy SRL I had that complete pinch me moment as I'm walking around and they're working on designs for Yves St Laurent... you just become very aware of what a huge honour it is to be working with these partners.

"What a journey it is to see our beautiful Australian wool going from the paddocks to this wonderful yarn and into our products."

As a member of the Australian Fashion Council and an advisor to the board of ag tech company Zondii, Ms Bell is focused on provenance, authentication, and becoming a certified biodiversity and carbon farmer.

Ms Bell said she felt lucky to connect with Ms Lenart, who is now based in Sicily, and find they shared similar values

"That's how we were able to open the doors into these mills, because they were closed to new clients.... but they were so interested in partnering with me because of my passion for the fibre and because I wanted to deliver global impact through really driving Merino wool as a sustainable option to reduce microplastics in our oceans," she said.

"I'm the only client that they've ever had that has a history of working in high fashion right through to being a Merino grower and now going back to high fashion."

The Vanessa Bell brand originated from a luxury handcrafted baby blanket business, inspired by her grandmother, which will now be scaled up to a luxurious machine knit range.

The new knitwear collection draws inspiration from the baby blanket range, incorporating traditional knitting stitches and chevrons.

Ms Bell said her roots as a high fashion model made it important to have the products made in Italy, for the level of craftsmanship provided by those mills.

"What I'm trying to do is push the message of using wool for a better life and better planet," she said.

"For us we're using luxury yarn and we're basically coming to a market from an entry to mid level point.

"Our garments will range from about $250 Australian right up to about $800... it's not unachievable for the average person to buy and invest in something that is the very best, handcrafted and designed in Italy.

"We don't need any more disposable fashion... the beautiful thing about Merino wool is that you can basically create a really fashion-forward piece knowing that you're not doing any harm to the planet."

Ms Bell said the visit also provided her with unique insights into the current requirements of Italian mills and she would be pursuing RWS certification in line with that.

"They are so passionate about the environment... they've really shifted their focus to buying South African wool and wool from places like Argentina, the reason being that very few farmers here are RWS-certified," she said.

"To get the very confidential specifications of what the mill requires from us as growers was just such an incredible insight... irrespective of opinions in this country the global consumer expects that through that global supply chain that every supplier meets that standard and if you don't meet that standard they simply won't buy your wool."