Ireland is already making the transition, to see that wool is an ever more future-proof material for clothing.  We of course confine this fact to the Irish winter season and that's when we wear layers for warmth.  Yet we still think and feel wool as an itchy scratchy fabric which is uncomfortable to wear and wears out quickly.  However, that's were the practical awareness of layering comes in.

Up until the late 1960s, we universally wore wool suits, being a pair of wool trousers for gentlemen or skirt for ladies and a wool jacket.  While at this stage we may have already started to loose much of an awareness in the way to layer, from the beginning of the past century back to the dawn of time we have put linen and later cotton garments under wool.  This is especially the case for wool trousers, where long johns or something either resembling pajamas or long shorts were worn as a baselayer for more reasons than warmth.  It was equally about increasing the longevity of the trouser, which essentially becomes untouched by the body.  

So, skinny jeans are really the antithesis of sustainable clothing.. they hug the skin and thus wear out quickly.  But cotton is cheap you say?  Yes, so therefore the key combination then is a thin layer of cotton or linen under trousers with either another layer of the first materials or wool on top as your outer trousers.