For more than 20 years, High Tea with Mrs Woo have been creating thoughtful, Australian-made clothing designed to be worn well and kept for the long term. Their work explores the intersection of craft, clothing and storytelling, with a deep commitment to natural fibres, responsible production and circular design.
From their own natural fibre production offcuts collected over more than a decade, High Tea with Mrs Woo have developed a stunning range of recycled yarn with the support of Dempstah. And with that, we have worked closely with the team at High Tea to develop a limited collection of considered knitwear that celebrates resourcefulness, craftsmanship and material stewardship.
This has been a truly delightful collaboration to be part of and we asked a few questions of Rowena, from the the creative trio behind the brand, Angela, Rowena and Juliana Foong;
The yarn in this range has been many years in the making. Can you tell us about the journey from collecting production offcuts to holding the finished recycled yarn in your hands, and what that moment meant to you?
Ah yes, it was quite a long journey! It has taken about 15 years for us to get to this point!
We were absolutely astounded and thrilled when we received the very first hank of upcycled yarn in 2022 when we did a pilot process to see if a high quality yarn could be produced from our textile 'waste'. It was possible! When we held the first Knitted Vest collaboration with Brood in our hands, we were elated!
Here's a bit of the background story -
There were definitely moments during these years that we almost gave up on the idea. You can imagine - we were pretty much running out of space in our small workshop with boxes filled with tonnes of fabric offcuts. But we felt so dismayed at the thought of dumping them all that we just had to persevere and keep looking for a solution.
Looking back, it started around 2010-2012 when the mattress company we used to send our fabric offcuts closed down and we couldn't find another solution for recycling these 'waste' parts from our clothing production processes. Landfill was the last option, but we were determined not to do that. Surely we would find a way to recycle or use these 'waste' materials sometime in the near future so we decided to store them.
There was a lot of excitement a decade later in 2021 when we finally found a potential solution and project partner, Dempstah - a start-up textile development company specialising in recycling. They worked with The Billie Upcycling in Hong Kong to convert our textile offcuts into high quality upcycled yarn using an patented waterless mechanical recycling system which does not use any water, detergents or produce any chemical waste in their recycling processes. Incredible.
During these years, we dreamed about turning all this textile 'waste' into garments - to find an upcycling solution and close the loop on clothing production. And so, in 2024, we embarked on this mission. We made this dream come true with our project Zero-Waste Garment from Zero-Waste Yarn with the support of City of Sydney Ideas & Innovations grant. We partnered with the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles. We were successful in prototyping our first zero-waste 3D knitted garment with our zero-waste yarn using the Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machine and expertise of the Textiles Lab, University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
When we first began discussing this collaboration, what possibilities did you see for the yarn? Were there qualities or characteristics of knitwear that felt particularly suited to showcasing the material?
First thing to note is that our upcycled yarn is predominantly cotton/linen so it naturally suits loose fitting knitwear so collaborating with [you] on a Knitted Vest made sense! We also wanted to make Beanies and Fingerless Mitts with our yarn as a lighter option for customers who live in climates not as cold or [have less] need for woolly head and hand warmers.
These knitted pieces showcase the best qualities of our *yarn - it's softness and gentle crispness that makes it feel fresh against the skin, and the unique character of the yarn due to the recovered linen/cotton fibres. We love that the Knitted Vests are not woolly but still warm, with a lightness that makes it easy to wear across seasons and throughout the year.
*The fibre content is 50% recovered linen and cotton fibres from Mrs Woo's fabric 'waste' and 50% GOTS organic cotton to add tensile strength to the yarn to knit on the Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machine that we use at Brood.
Every collaboration involves a degree of experimentation. Were there any challenges, surprises or unexpected discoveries during the design and development process that shaped the final collection?
There are always challenges! And we always learn so much from them. Designing knitwear is a new area for us as cut-and-sew designers. Collaborating with Brood and being guided by your knowledge for the first range has been great to learn about designing for knitwear and working with our yarn. For example, we added Merino wool to knit the Beanies and Fingerless Mitts to give it more natural elasticity as opposed to adding Lycra (which wouldn't biodegrade at the end of the life of these pieces). And when we received our first Knitted Vest sample, we loved discovering the unique character of our yarn - the depth of colour, texture and gentle flecking due to the recovered fibre content, only achievable by the recycling process. It created such an elegant quality of garment.
Looking at the finished pieces now, what are you most proud of? And having reached this point, what might be next?
We're proud that we persevered! 15 years is a long time to keep on an idea and for it to turn out successfully - phew! We're also so happy that our first range of zero-waste knitwear was made with Brood and produced in Australia using excellent technology. Let's keep this going!
The future of knitwear lies not only in creating beautiful garments, but in rethinking the materials we use and the systems behind them. Collaborations like this remind us that innovation often begins with patience, curiosity and a refusal to accept waste as inevitable. We're incredibly proud to have partnered with High Tea with Mrs Woo to help bring this collection to life.
See the collection HERE.