I'm kind of surprised this is the first review, as Wool&Prince (https://woolandprince.com/) is the…read morepredecessor to and current brother company of wool& (https://wooland.com/), which *totally* has a cult following. (W&P used to sell both men's and women's clothing; now W&P largely sells to men and wool& to women, though ofc you can pick whatever you want from either company.) I know this because I've acquired 4 figures' worth of their clothing since finding them during the pandemic 3 years ago! And I'm not even among the most diehard by a clear margin!
Am I made of money? Alas, no. I gained some weight during the pandemic, but ofc still wanted/needed to dress presentably for work, preferably *at least* as comfortably as I had been. I started rehauling my wardrobe twice. The first time wasn't as expensive or time-consuming, bc even though I needed some new pieces, I only sort of liked what I was finding to buy. Around a year later I found wool&, absolutely did like them a lot, and one piece led to another. I bought their clothing for myself and other people and when asked, requested items as Xmas gifts. Before I knew it, most of my wardrobe and most of what I wear is now merino wool with a reasonable percentage of synthetics for durability.
A lot of people have had their clothing/laundry lives changed by finding clothing that suits their lifestyle. What I and a lot of "woolies" tend to like about high-merino blends is that they're very comfortable on my skin, breathable, and don't need to be washed as often as other fabrics to feel and smell fresh. Fine, thinly spun and woven wool actually feels cooler to me than the spendy linen dress I bought the year before, while thicker wool, worn in layers, is warmer than most synthetics I've tried, and easier to care for than cashmere. Basically, I've found styles that suit me and wear almost every day, and I feel fairly confident after 3 years that this is a sustainable way for me to dress. I've downsized but not eliminated my former wardrobe -- I kept my former favorites, some suits and formal wear, and beat up clothing that I'd be ashamed to donate to do chores and putter around in.
So am I largely done clothes shopping/optimizing my wardrobe? Well, I'd like to downsize/streamline more, and make some alterations to some of my wool (as a petite-short, most clothing I buy could use some tweaking). But I'm holding off bc my pandemic weight is still coming off, so my new-ish almost-there wardrobe may not be. But this is not as bad as it sounds - bc wool& has such a dedicated following, there are sizable fb groups including BST (buy-sell-trade) groups. So sells/swaps are totally an option.
Yup, this is a HUGELY LONG review with no photos (yet). But you can see photos on wool& (https://wooland.com/collections/all) and W&P (https://woolandprince.com/collections/all). If you tap into specific items, there are often photos from actual customers, so you can see the clothes on people who aren't models. The company doesn't have brick-and-mortar storefronts, so you can't go try on their clothes. But shipping and returns for store credit are free in the US. One thing I'll note is most people find the merino blends loosen/stretch a bit after a few hours or a few days of wear. So when in doubt, size down, or ask customer service or many helpful woolies for help! The official fb group for wool& is https://www.facebook.com/groups/wooland100daychallenge . I'm not part of W&P's fb group if there is one?
The last thing I'll mention is both wool& and W&P are known for their 100 Day Challenges (yes, they're *that* company). Each customer can do a lifetime total of one of these (*not* one from each company), where they wear the same challenge-eligible garment for 100 days and take a picture each day. You launder and dry overnight as needed - wool dries surprisingly quickly! The reward from wool& is a $100 wool& gift certificate - you can find current rules here: https://journal.wooland.com/post/2020/5/1/100-day-dress-challenge, for W&P it's https://woolandprince.com/blogs/everyday-merino/your-next-shirt-could-be-on-us.
While I've easily worn wool& garments for 100 consecutive days, I haven't worn the same garment nearly so long (but would have no objection to doing so - I'd just make sure to start at a good time, so the dress I chose made sense for the entire run). But from doing shorter challenges for $10-20 rewards, I know I lack the starchy moral fiber to take selfies daily for 100 days without getting at least a bit stressed and unhappy about it. If you're made of sterner stuff, those challenges are a great way of getting tons of mileage from your first wool& / W&P piece, followed by a huge discount on your second!
