The Farmers Mart Aug-Sep 2018 - Issue 58 | Page 27

THE GREAT YORKSHIRE SHOW 27
• AUG/SEP 2018
WOOL IS MY BREAD
– ALISON O’NEIL
WHILST at the Great Yorkshire
Show, I (editor) managed to catch
up with a rather busy Alison O’Neil,
known in the online world as Shep-
herdess, a hill farmer and clothing
designer, specialising in producing
wool tweed products using fleece
from her own flock.
Alison was at the Great York-
shire Show, showcasing her new
collection at this year’s catwalk.
I managed to squeeze in a chat
between shows with her to discuss
hill farming and her clothing com-
pany, ‘Wool is my Bread’.
Alison is a one-woman farmer,
who has farmed at Shackla Bank
for the last 20 years, it’s a small
traditional hill farm of 40 acres. Her
family have been farming in the
Yorkshire Dales for several gener-
ations, though she left the Dales
for a period of 15 years, travelling
to see if the other side of the fence
was greener. She returned to the
Dales, probably discovering the
grass is never greener than it is in
Cumbria.
The sheep she runs on the farm
is a closed flock of Kendal Rough
Fell, Swaledale and Herdwick
sheep. She chose them because
the breed suits the terrain well
and she has a love of native
breeds. Alison’s works with the
flock is to produce meat for 5-star
Michelin restaurants, using the
wool fleeces to produce products
for her brand ‘Wool is my Bread’
as well as selling quality gimmers
to other breeders.
With no previous experience
in fashion, and just a passion for
clothing and wool, Alison set up her
clothing brand ‘Wool is my Bread’.
She designs functional everlasting
traditional clothes similar to those
worn by her parents and grandpar-
ents. The designs are well cuts with
classical lines in a warm woollen
material, spun from her own
wool. Her inspiration comes from
the environment around her, the
landscape is her colour palette, the
weave of the tweed replicates the
physical nature of where she lives,
the drystone walls and hedgerows,
where the herring bone pattern is
inspired from mowing the mead-
ows. From sheep to finished tweed
material takes a year, it’s a long
process, but the quality of the end
product speaks for itself.
As I mentioned earlier I met up
with Alison at the Great Yorkshire
Show’s catwalk, or as her collection
was called ‘The Sheep Walk’. It was
the first time she had showcased a
collection on the catwalk, and she
was slightly nervous and excited.
“I was nervous, excited and
scared but rose to the challenge
for this amazing opportunity I had
been given. It was a fabulous ex-
perience, and so well received, a
huge hit and it’s created so much
business interest as well.”
Recently ‘Shepherdess; Seasons
of my Life’ book, featuring stun-
ning photography of Alison by Ian
Lawson, was produced that tells
the story of Alison, its an account
of Alison’s day to day life, living
alone and making her way in the
world. Alison wrote the narrative
and hopes to follow up this coffee
table book with her autobiogra-
phy in a couple of years.
Alison’s plans going forward, is to
push the brand onwards and up-
wards, taking her passion for wool
and clothing with total provenance
to the fashion industry. “I’d love to
showcase at London Fashion Week
or be recognised by ‘The Cam-
paign for Wool’ but both of those
seem like tough nuts to crack.”
We wish Alison all the best and
fingers crossed she gets to show-
case her work at London Fashion
Week one day.
https://shop.shepherdess.co.uk/