Shelter
Milled Australian Merino
- Designed to feel
- Dense · softened · sculptural
- Primary use
- Coats, overshirts, shirt-jackets
·Since 1907·Amritsar
The Living Mill · Amritsar
In a city shaped by pashmina, silk and trade, OCM’s century-old mill composes Australian Merino into cloth for the next chapter of luxury.
A city made by movement and material
01 / Amritsar
Amritsar was founded with trade at its heart. It grew along the Grand Trunk Road, part of routes connecting South and Central Asia; historical records trace pashm through the city, while its markets carried silk, shawls and woollen cloth.
02 / The living mill
The house story begins in 1907. OCM established its Amritsar manufacturing home in 1924, and production continues on the historic estate today. This is not heritage preserved behind glass. It is knowledge kept alive by making.
Luxury designed to be felt
03 / Our standard
“Felt” is physical and emotional: the first reading of cloth by the hand, its behaviour on the body, and the human continuity behind its making. Every fibre, blend, construction and finish must earn that feeling.
04 / The odyssey of wool
Australian Merino travels from open pasture through independent measurement, across the Indian Ocean and into Amritsar—where it is prepared, coloured, composed with silk or linen, spun, woven or knitted, and cut into silhouette before reaching European design rooms. Scroll forward to follow the transformation; scroll back to retrace it.
Begin the odyssey Scroll down to advance · scroll up to retraceAcross the seasons, Merino sheep graze open pasture as their fleece grows. At shearing, that annual fibre becomes the mill’s first material decision—selected for fineness, softness, resilience and warmth.
OCM specifies Non Mulesed Australian Merino for the collection, sourced from flocks shaped by generations of breeding for fibre fineness and consistency. AWTA Ltd independently supervises sampling and issues Test Certificates for specified measurements of each purchased sale lot. OCM’s purchase and allocation records establish Australian origin and connect those lots to the fabric order.
Australian Wool Testing Authority Ltd — How wool is sampled and testedFrom the wool store to the export port, the bales cross the Indian Ocean and turn inland toward Amritsar. The passage keeps the fibre journey unbroken.
Cinematic passage · scroll in either directionOpening and carding separate and organise the wool; repeated gilling draws, doubles and evens the sliver; combing removes shorter fibres and lays the longer fibres parallel. The result is a controlled wool top, ready for precise yarn engineering. Where an article calls for silk or linen, separately prepared fibres enter a measured blending route designed for the handle, drape and performance of the cloth to come.
For top-dyed developments, combed top is packed onto a carrier and lowered into a sealed kier. Heated dye liquor circulates through the stationary fibre; route, shade standard and fastness remain controlled article decisions.
Depending on the article, measured fibre streams are doubled and drafted through repeated blend-making passages, or composition is built later in yarn or construction. The aim is controlled hand, drape and performance—not novelty.
Yarn count, twist, ply and spinning system determine strength, compactness, spring and surface. Material intention becomes something the hand can already begin to read.
On the loom, warp and weft lock into woven structure. On the knitting machine, needles draw yarn into linked loops. Construction and finish tune drape, recovery, warmth and surface.
At the cutting table, the cloth’s hand and drape guide each decision. Heavy steel tailor’s shears open the path from length to form—coat, overshirt, jacket, trouser or dress—each application study linked back to its fabric article.
The journey ends at the designer’s table: cloth with a distinct hand, exact specifications and an Amritsar team ready to develop what comes next.
The Amritsar Material Library
The launch system turns existing developments into a buyer-readable library. SHELTER leads commercially; the other families widen the house without diluting the outerwear wedge.
Milled Australian Merino
Fine and composite worsteds
Merino × silk
Merino × linen
Tested natural-performance wool
From material to wardrobe
Each image is an application study: a way for design and sourcing teams to see the cloth’s intended life before committing to a development.






05 / The proof
Every fabric order is supplied with the relevant AWTA Test Certificate(s) for the Australian wool used. The OCM batch allocation record connects those wool lots to the finished fabric; the material passport assembles the rest of the article evidence at the scope each record supports.
Certificate and lot identifiers appear only in the authorised buyer record. Nothing in the public journey fabricates a certificate number.

Arrival / Europe
A distinct point of view, exact specifications and the ability to keep developing.

For material, design and sourcing teams
Request the collection, specify an article or develop a cloth with our Amritsar team. Its origin can be documented, its construction specified and its value felt before the label is read.