Style: May 07, 2021

Style | Feature 29
“There are people living all around the world who
are quite disconnected from nature. They are living in
central city apartments and we’re exceptionally lucky
we are sitting here in Dublin Bay looking over the lake
– you get a more stunning view really,” says Ben.
However, introduce something to those apartments,
that is truly from nature, which you can touch, and it
recreates the feeling of nature, says Amanda.
She refers to the biophilia hypothesis, as per
American biologist Edward O. Wilson, who believes
humans seek to be connected to nature.
“I think that’s what we don’t really realise. When
we go for our walk along the beach or in the forest
or are lounging on sheepskin, compared to something
synthetic, your body feels good. It’s quite a primal
thing,” she says.
Wilson & Dorset’s sheepskin products, including
rugs, stone sets and beanbags, encourage ‘lounging’
– transforming formal spaces into places of supreme
enjoyment.
“We spend so much time at our computers; we
are locked into this sitting position at our desk and
then we go home and sit in our armchairs. We
replace one static seating situation for another. But
if you have a lounging rug or stones to lounge on
– to read a book or play on – it is very good for our
bodies,” says Amanda.
“One of our customers, early in the piece, had a
beautiful living space with a tile floor and they just
didn’t use the space. He bought a lounging rug and
what he found was he was suddenly reading the paper
on the floor – he hadn’t done that in 30 to 40 years,”
adds Ben.
THE WILSON LEGACY
A small advertisement appeared in the Otago Daily
Times in August1881. Robert Wilson (1832–99)
offered to subscribe £100 on the condition 19 others
subscribed a similar amount to “test the playability of
the industry” of sending frozen sheep meat to Britain.
That man was also Ben’s great-great grandfather. As
a result, the New Zealand Refrigerating Co Ltd was
formed, with Robert as one of the original directors.
“They didn’t end up being the first – they were the
second shipment, it was a bit of a race at the time. It
was the beginnings of the sheep meat industry – they
were already sending wool at that stage, but sending
frozen things was an enormous feat and the height of
technology at the time,” says Ben.
Sheepskin and meat, in some form or the other,
have been in the Wilson family ever since. One of
Ben’s earliest memories of sheepskin comes from the
carpet in the living room of the Taieri farmhouse, near
Dunedin, in which he grew up.
“My father was involved in the trade back then. It
wasn’t carpet, it was sheepskin cut up into pieces and
fixed to the floor. I always remember this luxurious,
curly carpet; this sheepskin,” he says.
Ben’s father, the late Robert Wilson, and his
exporting and consultancy company Robert Wilson
Ltd, also helped set up a sheepskin tannery in
Xuanhua, China, with Auskin Group and an up-andcoming
Dunedin tanner, Leroy Parker.
“In 1997, Dad arranged for Leroy, a Port Chalmers
lad who had never travelled at that stage, to live in
Inner Mongolia and help build the tannery. They
commissioned the new tannery in three months – an
incredible achievement given Leroy did not speak a
word of Mandarin when he arrived,” says Ben.
Not only does Leroy still remain with the Auskin
factory as technical director, but the close familylike
relationship remains. Amanda and Ben use the
factory as their manufacturer, plus they have a small
shareholding in the factory.
Amanda and Ben wanted to fly the New Zealand
wool flag around the world, but they also wanted to
connect to our natural surroundings. To do that, they
needed to do things differently.
AVOIDING PERFECTION
Things looked too perfect. That was what Ben noticed
in his pre-Wilson & Dorset days, when he was working
with retailers in Asia selling sheepskin products.
“I’d see sheepskin in the store and right next
LITTLE RIVER GALLERY
1-25 MAY
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03 325 1944
info@littlerivergallery.com
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Hours: Mon - Thurs, 7am - 4.30pm, Fri 8am - Midday,
or by appointment with Keith 027 566 3909
Christine Maynard | HIDDEN ESSENCE
424 ST ASAPH STREET PH 371 7500
RE-UPHOLSTERY SPECIALISTS KEITH HARTSHORNE 0275 663 909