For months now, buzzy labels like Monse and Pyer Moss have been hard at work assembling Merino wool-based capsule collections, hoping they'll follow in the line of previous precocious designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld – that is to say, that they'll take home the prestigious International Woolmark Prize. With a panel of judges like André Leon Talley, Maxwell Osborne, and Jason Wu (plus, W's Stefano Tonchi) making the final call, research has been taken especially seriously: Abasi Rosborough said it carried it back tens of thousands of years, while for Gabriela Hearst, the material's long been in the family. (She grew up on a sheep ranch in Uruguay.) Before they go on to compete in Paris and London next year, preview the winning American collections with inspirations from hot newcomers like Second/Layer to the former competitive boxer Nellie Partow.