As its recent campaign featuring Bill Nighy dancing around and drinking tea in a beautifully soft merino jumper shows, British brand and manufacturer John Smedley prides itself on making premium knitwear using natural fibers. But recently, managing director Jess Mcguire Dudley noticed a disconnect between her home and her work life: when her four-year-old son started school, she spent more than £400 on a compulsory uniform, only to discover the jumper was 98% acrylic.

“I was thinking, how can I be championing all of these things — natural fibers, traceability, craftsmanship — to the fashion industry, but then saying to my son, ‘Here’s a plastic jumper’?” says Mcguire Dudley, who became MD of John Smedley in April. “It felt so paradoxical.”

In October, John Smedley launched its School Uni

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