We’re over-the-moon to welcome Fonty, the 145-year-old French yarnmakers running one of the last remaining wool spinning and dyeing facilities still in operation in France—in a very modern way! Danielle met with the Fonty team at the annual trade show for our industry (h + h Americas) earlier this year and was blown away by Fonty’s history and commitment to the highest standards of yarnmaking. We prioritize makers who are having a huge impact on the wool industries in their local communities.
Created in 1880 in Rougnat, Creuse, France, Fonty is “La Filature de Rougnat” (The Spinner of Rougnat). The company is one of the last wool-spinning and dyeing factories in France. It is an officially designated Living Heritage Company (Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, or EPV), which the French Ministry of Economics awards to recognize French businesses with “an economic heritage, composed in particular of a rare, renowned or ancestral know-how, based on the mastery of traditional techniques or high technicality and limited to a territory.” Awarded in 2017 and renewed in 2022, the EPV designation recognizes Fonty’s nearly 150 years of yarnmaking excellence.
