Why Are Merino, Lambswool, Shetland and Donegal Not Fibre Names?<\/h2>\n
Merino is a breed of sheep, not a fibre. Lambswool names the first clip of a young animal, Shetland names an island breed, Donegal names a yarn effect built from coloured neps, and tweed names a cloth. None of the five words appears in Annex I, so none of the five may replace wool in the fibre line. According to Business Companion<\/a>, the guidance service run by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and reviewed in July 2026, decorative matter that makes up 7% or less of a product is excluded from the fibre content indication. A woven-in fleck can use that exclusion while the fleck stays decorative; a 4% polyamide binder in the same cloth is a fibre and must be declared. \u201c100% merino\u201d on a hangtag, with no wool basis on the care label, is the failure this guidance catches most often.<\/p>\n The United States regulates wool through a separate statute rather than a closed list. A wool product is any product that contains, purports to contain, or is represented as containing wool or recycled wool, and the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 reaches a tweed coat even when wool is a minority share. According to 15 U.S.C. \u00a768<\/a>, the required fibre content states percentages of wool, recycled wool and other fibres, and merino, lambswool or shetland carry no weight in that required line. The same statute also requires the country where the product was processed or manufactured, a field that sits beside the fibre line rather than inside it. A US buyer reading \u201c100% merino wool\u201d therefore sees a breed word where a generic fibre name and a percentage are owed. The gap bites on a two-market coat: one shell passes a London review and fails a New York one, because the American label wants a percentage on every fibre.<\/p>\n Wool means the fibre from the fleece of a sheep or lamb, and the statute extends the same word to the hair of the Angora and cashmere goat. According to 15 U.S.C. \u00a768, recycled wool is fibre recovered from a wool product that a consumer never used, or from one that a consumer used and that was then returned to fibre. Virgin wool and new wool are reserved for fibre never reclaimed from any spun, woven, knitted or felted product, and the 2014 wording of 16 CFR 300.20<\/a> leaves no margin on that condition. Where a garment is composed wholly of one fibre, all or 100% may be used, but 16 CFR 300.17<\/a> allows 5% of fibre ornamentation and then requires the phrase \u201cexclusive of ornamentation\u201d immediately after the fibre name. Only the speciality fibres in section 2(b) of the Act \u2014 camel, alpaca, llama, vicuna and Angora or cashmere goat hair \u2014 may stand in place of wool, and each carries its percentage.<\/p>\n A two-column test case is the fastest way to see the split. The composition below is a 90 metre run of 97% wool and 3% polyamide tweed. According to 16 CFR 300.17 and the 2012 UK Regulations, the same cloth takes different words on each side of the Atlantic, and neither market permits a one-fibre claim at 97%.<\/p>\n![\"Fabric](\"https:\/\/fursone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20260908094837_102_4-rotated.jpg\")
What Does the United States Ask For Instead?<\/h2>\n
How Does the US Act Define Wool, Recycled Wool and Virgin Wool?<\/h3>\n
How Do the Same 90 Metres Read on Two Labels?<\/h3>\n