Is dog wool a brilliant idea or a slippery slope? With Sebastian Salvat | Chiora

Every spring, a double-coated dog sheds enough undercoat to knit a jumper, and almost all of it ends up in the bin. Sebastian Salvat thinks that is a waste of something remarkable. He is a fashion marketing student at London College of Fashion, and he has spent years pulling dogs out of difficult situations in Romania, two of whom now live with him. Somewhere between those two worlds, Chiora was born: a project that turns brushed-out dog undercoat into a soft, cashmere-like yarn, named after his rescue dogs Chai and Ora. It sounds like a novelty, but it is older than you would think. A hundred years ago the British Dog Wool Association was spinning dog hair into garments for wounded soldiers. What Sebastian is doing is the same idea, rebuilt for now, and he has thought about it more carefully than almost anyone. That care is what makes this conversation interesting. Because the moment you give a waste product real value, you create a reason to produce more of it, and with dogs, that question gets serious fast. Nadine pushes him on it directly. If dog wool becomes a luxury people pay for, does it quietly start to drive breeding? Sebastian has an answer, and it is a better one than you might expect. Along the way he also says something most dog guardians have never heard. That fur you have been leaving out on the fence for the birds to nest with might be hurting them. What is the line between making use of what a dog gives us, and turning the dog into something to be used? Guest: Sebastian Salvat, fashion marketing student at London College of Fashion and founder of Chiora. Dog rescue volunteer since the age of 16. Instagram:   / justadogpodcast   Substack: https://goofles.substack.com/subscribe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... TikTok:   / justadogpodcast   Hosted by Nadine. Chiora: https://chiora.org