100% wool jumpers under £100

Lucy
Nov 7
3 min read

Jumper season is upon us, and the 'label lookers' among us are once again in a state of despair that all the high street is offering us is plastic, occasionally with a token sprinkling of wool, if we're lucky. Some jumpers I’ve seen have had as little as 6% wool in the mix, the rest polyester, and yet they are still being marketed with tempting “with wool” labels on the outside, to trick us into thinking we're getting something natural, when in fact the truth is nothing like it.

So, in my bid to rid my wardrobe of synthetic fibres, I’ve been on the lookout for alternative sellers that offer interesting, but still timeless, jumpers, in a range of colours, at a price point not too far off the high-street.

Here’s what I’ve found and liked;

WoolOvers

Younger readers may be put off by the age of some of the models, but I think they offer a really good selection of styles and colours that would suit anyone. There are a few viscose mix options, but you can easily filter them out of your search, which also offers the option to sort by neck type, which I always find useful. They also sell 100% wool and cotton homewares too. UK based.

My pick: The Cashmere and Merino Long Sleeve Cowl Neck Jumper at £72 and available in 12 different colours.

Aran Woollen Mills

Lovely selection of chunky knits in a range of earthy colours. Many styles are priced a little above my £100 threshold, but if they have a sale there may be some bargains to be had. Homewares too. Ireland based.

My pick: Inisheer Ladies Traditional Merino Aran Sweater £90 and available in 10 different colours.

Aran Sweater Market

Chunky knits in lots of different jumper styles, as well as cardis, ponchos, jackets and dresses, and in some lovely bright colours too, which ticks all my boxes. Ireland based.

My pick: Aran Cable Crossover Neck Sweater £100.36 (£81 in the sale when I saw it) available in 7 different colours.

Mars Knitwear

A small but interesting selection of chunky styles including jumpers, hoodies and cardis. A few different designs in the outlet section too. UK based.

My pick: British Wool Chunky Cable Cowl Neck Jumper £90 (£50 in the sale when I saw it) available in 7 different colours.

Celtic & Co

Lots of mostly fine knits in a range of colours, and patterns using Merino wool, cotton and linen. Also sells other clothing, homewares and slippers in natural materials too. A B-Corp, and UK based.

My pick: Linen Blend Drop Stitch Breton Jumper £99 in four colourways (some colours were £39 in the sale).

The second hand market

Sadly its really quite difficult to buy second hand jumpers on Vinted and Ebay and be totally sure they are 100% natural fibres, as most sellers don't take photos of the labels, and any wool content gets a tick in the wool material box, but you bet I'm asking questions! I have already picked up a nice chunky M&S cotton jumper and a cashmere cardi from Pure Collection this year. I also want to mention Nearly New Cashmere Co which has one off pre-owned items at really good prices.

And some findings that weren’t good:

There were a few high-street stores that I thought were worth checking out, mostly because these brands are readily available on Vinted and eBay second hand, so I hoped looking at their current collections would give me a better picture of what they were likely to be made of.

The Edinburgh Woollen Mill was really disappointing, with the main page of jumpers almost all containing anything up to 100% polyester or acrylic, so no wool at all! M&S is using terms like ‘Cloud-Yarn’ and ‘Air-Yarn’ to describe plastic, is just infuriating! Seasalt Cornwall are using around 20% recycled nylon in most of their jumpers. Monsoon is selling 100% plastic 'fair isle' jumpers for £75. On a Fatface search, 37 items appear under the material filter 'wool', the first of which is in fact 69% polyester and just 5% wool. A White Stuff 'wool' search fared a little better with most items containing around 20% plastic in its wool mixes. Not a good picture.