Precious Collaborative

Great!! There was such a wonderful representation at the recent WoolOn Creative Fashion Event from all levels of education, they will soak this up!

There is a waitlist for Wool in Schools.

That is a good problem. Demand remains high and the newer secondary and tertiary programmes are growing too. So we are giving education its own person.

We are hiring an Education Manager to take the whole education portfolio, early childhood through to tertiary: Wool in Schools containers, Wool Dynamics for tertiary students, resources, bookings, logistics, and the relationships with schools and institutions that make any of it work.

30 hours a week, fixed term to 30 June 2027, working from home. Hawke's Bay based, because that is where the containers live and where the team meets each week.

If you have taught, run programmes, or built relationships with schools, and you care about wool, sustainability and the primary sector, this is a role where the work turns up somewhere you can see it.

Applications close 5pm Friday 18 September.

Full seek ad: https://nz.seek.com/job/94411811?ref=cm-ui

I loved what Victoria had to say, it demonstrated the importance of working together, something Precious is Passionate about. Thank you Victoria Mulligan

How do you want to wear your clothes?
How do you want to present yourself?
Who do you want to be today?
What do you want to communicate to the people around you?
A few good items in your wardrobe; a few funky accessories; a bit of imagination; who will you be today?!

There are many ways to wear a Coat, especially such a beautiful, unique, expensive Coat.
Beautiful clothing speaks for itself, wear it quietly or with serious attitude...
This is Precious Collaborative's Lake Wanaka Trench Coat by the wonderful Liz Mitchell, MNZM.
A beautifully storied garment, hand-felted, depicting the mountains and lake of Wanaka, the home of Precious Collaborative.
The fabric is from McLean & Co's selection of tweedish weaves, 13 different designs, made from fibre grown in Canterbury, woven in the North Island and nearly discarded a decade ago before it was rescued by Sue and Rod McLean & Co. - Hand woven textiles, then stashed away for something special. Precious Collaborative was the perfect project.
The McLean & Co fabric is worked with a beautiful woven wool from Interweave in Auckland and lined with Shibori dyed silk - and I'm putting AI to the test again:
'Shibori dye is an ancient Japanese manual resist-dyeing technique—traditionally done with indigo—that involves folding, twisting, binding, or clamping cloth to create intricate patterns.'

Wonderful re-vitalisation....

A Precious Slaney Skirt on-stage at Wastebusters Wanaka Refashion 2025.
This woollen tweed skirt, lined with Tencel, uses natural shell buttons rather than a zipper to increase the mulch-ability of the garment.
The main fabric is a herringbone weave with a denim backdrop and multicoloured flecks or 'neps' .... and look what AI came up with when I asked for a definition of neps? 10 outa 10 this time to AI!!!:
'Neps in tweed are small, dense, tangled clumps of short wool fibers or contrasting colored flecks woven directly into the yarn to create a speckled, multi-colored texture. They are the defining feature of traditional Donegal Tweed, mimicking natural countryside elements like heather and moss.'
Beautiful.....