So reads the initial email correspondence between our Tasmanian single source woolgrower partner, Simon Cameron of Kingston farm, and master tailor Kaneko Kenichi of Japan’s Miyuki Keori. One week earlier, in May 2024, Kaneko had stood in Simon’s woolshed, an hour’s drive from Launceston, touching Kingston superfine Merino fleece while Simon explained how he grows 15.5-micron wool (as fine as cashmere) “in harmony with the environment, not against it.”

With M.J. Bale founder Matt Jensen, Kaneko and Simon had driven through Kingston’s “rough country”—native grasslands that Simon wasn’t just preserving but actively regenerating. These landscapes are supported by M.J. Bale’s store-to-farm rebate from sales of Kingston single source suits. Simon also showed Kaneko a photograph of his great-great uncle, Eustace Cameron, who presented the Japanese Emperor Hirohito with a bale of Tasmanian wool in the 1930s.

When Kaneko returned to Japan and reflected that Simon lived “a good, simple life amongst this wild nature,” he was grappling with something larger than a supply chain opportunity. Kingston posed a deeper question: what if quality wasn’t about excess but restraint? What if the finest clothes came not from chasing novelty but from respecting what already exists?

“Your wool has been a huge success in Italian luxury fabrics,” Kaneko wrote later, “but Miyuki in Japan is wondering if there is a different approach?” This was not rhetorical. It asked whether Japanese craftsmanship—rooted in patience, dedication, continual improvement, and what Kaneko calls “leeway as a human being”—could offer something distinct from European mills. Could garments be created in a quiet, calming way within a fashion system built on noise?

Simon’s response was immediate: “I have just 20 bales of 15.5-micron fleece available and I would very much like you and M.J. Bale to have it.”

From that moment, the project evolved into a deeply aligned collaboration: twenty bales of traceable Kingston Merino fleece, grown on conservation land home to threatened flora and fauna, woven in Yokkaichi, Japan by Miyuki Keori into exceptionally soft cloth, and tailored into garments in Kaneko’s atelier in Otaru, Hokkaido. These pieces—tuxedos, suits, and a travel jacket—arrive in Australian stores from August 2026.

Sales of these garments fund biodiversity and habitat preservation at Kingston, creating a closed-loop system where profit actively restores the landscape. Craft preservation and environmental stewardship are not add-ons but integral to the model.

One year after Kaneko’s visit, Simon travelled to Otaru to see where the wool would end up. He described the workshop as extraordinary, noting the depth of feeling the artisans have for their work and the challenges of sustaining the next generation of tailors. Despite this, he observed genuine commitment to keeping the craft alive.

Kaneko sees this process as a continuous thread from paddock to pattern. Protecting nature, raising sheep, producing wool, weaving fabric, and tailoring garments all require human effort, skill, and respect. Each stage contributes to a final product designed to bring satisfaction and peace of mind to the wearer.

Over nine years, M.J. Bale has invested more than $500,000 into Kingston’s conservation work, supporting species such as wedge-tailed eagles and platypus, and preserving indigenous grasslands. This collaboration extends that regenerative model into Japanese craftsmanship, demonstrating that “old fashioned” methods still hold enduring value.

This collection is not an endpoint, but a beginning.

To register interest, email concierge@mjbale.com