Our Story
Our Company
The Woollen Market has transitioned from being a traditional retail company offering the same generic mass-produced woollen merchandise that is available in every woollen store in Ireland into a designer and producer of it's own small batch limited edition knitwear. By sourcing our own premium wools direct from farm to factory and in designing and producing our own luxurious knitwear collections under the highly acclaimed "Inis Aran" Brand Label the company is very quickly becoming recognised as Ireland's foremost luxury knitwear brand.
Preserving an Irish Tradition
Designing our exclusive knitwear creations at our studio in Ennis ("Inis" in the Irish language) our inspirational journey commences with a comprehensive mood board capturing trending styles and colour tones before we move onto choosing luxury yarn types and detailed knitting specifications. From the initial inception in our office to the finished creation in our retail stores each exquisite piece from our Inis Aran collection will pass through no less than 16 pairs of hands.
Supporting Local First
We have a local-first ethos within our business - That means where possible we source, produce or collaborate with local Irish companies first but as an international brand exporting globally across many continents and a company ethically sourcing our raw materials in multiple countries it is natural that we will also produce some creations in various artisanal or community based workshops or family operated mills internationally where we source our raw materials and when the commercial capacity or the knitting capability / specialisation that is required for some pieces of our luxury creations is not available in Ireland and or for environmental concerns where making a specialised product at the location where the raw material is sourced and the finished woollen yarn is spun for a collection makes sense technically and environmentally.
Small Batch Production
Each piece in our luxury knitwear collections are knitted in smaller batch, limited edition quantities. To make the finished piece of each individual "Inis Aran" creation there is hundreds of man hours extolled from the initial conception, the raw material sourcing, the design, the pre-production sampling, the batch production knitting and the final hand finishing at the end.
Think Unrivalled Quality
Our inspiration begins with our design teams mood boards that visualise various styles, colours and concepts and our team meetings to discuss trends and customer feedback before commencing with careful selection of the most luxurious wools that we source direct from farm to factory floor. In each step we are driven by an ethos of exceptional, unrivalled quality along with everyday functionality and modern style. By designing and making our own exclusive knitwear enables us to control our own supply chain to achieve the highest quality at all stages from farm, to factory to shop floor
100% Natural and Sustainable
We share our customers’ concerns for the future of our planet, so our luxury collections are 100% natural and sustainable — ensuring we only leave behind an environmentally friendly footprint. We will never compromise on this commitment — we only work with 100% wool from farms with proven good animal welfare practises and we NEVER add cheap and carbon intensive synthetics such as nylon, polyester or acrylic into our creations. In fact we abhor the use of greenwashing terms such as wool blend... where a large percentage of a fabric will be a petroleum produced fibre that is not natural
Our Premium Collections
Choosing Inis Aran knitwear is a fashion statement, a modern statement of unrefined luxury! It's a small batch limited edition luxury piece that has been made with exceptional 100% luxury woollen yarns unrivalled for it's softness, it's a garment that has been made to be worn and enjoyed! One that we've proudly noted celebrities, artists and models wearing as the luxury brand of Inis Aran expands out from Ireland to the furthest reaches of the world