Monday was the start of the Woolweek – campaign for wool 2012 – organised by the Norwegian Fashion Institute, Nortura, NICE Fashion and the Institute for Consumer Research along with spinners and wool brands to highlight the unique potential in local use of wool. I have been looking forward to seeing the pop up shop “Wool in Fashion” at Paleet (a posh shopping arcade at the main street Karl Johan in Oslo – see above), the exhibition “Det Kvite Gullet”/The White Gold at The National Museum and last but certainly not least the seminar “Fashion – a developing industry in Norway” on Thursday at the Norwegian Parliament. I have signed up for the seminar and I am waiting very impatiently for Thursday 1100 hours to arrive…

The Pop up shop is a co-operation between 14 Norwegian designers and established brands and NFI. The theme is the manufacture, experiment and designs with different types of wool as a natural resource. As you can see from my photos there were lots of garments and labels to study. The coat, below, is part of a tailor-made range for men by Norwegian Rain, here is norwegianrain. Do also look at the stunning dresses made by Malin Håvarstein Nilsen, here: havarstein, and the knitted cowls photographed below. One of several new Norwegian designers I have discovered. The rolls of fabric and the colourful cones hanging from the ceiling gave the shop space a feeling of  wannabe exhibition!

The concept for the “White Gold” exhibition is the result of the research report “Valuing Norwegian Wool”. It has a focus on Norwegian wool and the exhibition refers to a time when the wool industry in Norway was still a profitable business. The exhibition wants to encourage a dialog between the value chain within the Norwegian wool industry, and to create a debate. I have already made one attempt to view the exhibition but was a day early, eager to see it…

I like the fact that this week is the designated Wool Week even though my brother would probably object and say that I seem to consider all the weeks of the year just that! With the possible exception of a few Silk and Linen Weeks during the summer months when I change the fibre I am knitting with to something cooler on the hands. Do visit the Wool Week in Oslo if you can or make your own if you cannot – then there is no need for such an extensive program, obviously. But the program for the Oslo Wool Week is at the bottom of this informative page: norwegianfashioninstitute.