ALEXANDRA CONOVER believes in wool.

An outdoor guide in Maine, she regularly snow-shoes and canoes through wildest, coldest Labrador, preferring wool to high-tech fibers because she finds it stronger, safer around sparks from the fire, more resistant to human odor, and easier on the earth. Throughout her 21 years as a guide, Conover has tried almost every brand of wool there is to wear.

That's how she discovered that the most expensive is actually the cheapest in the long run, because it lasts so long. That bargain is called Filson. The C.C. Filson company was founded in 1897 by Clinton C. Filson, a Seattle-based dry-goods dealer who equipped prospectors headed for the Alaska-Klondike gold rush. The business still bears his name, and even though it barely advertises, it has built and maintained a loyal clientele for more than a century. The reason is simple: A Filson mackinaw or pair of pants is made from the finest, longest-lasting wool cloth you can find.

Just as humans have different kinds of hair, sheep have wool fibers of varying length and toughness. Whereas a softer wool might make a nicer shirt, Filson selects what will endure: one-hundred-percent virgin wool shorn only once a year from a breed of Oregon mountain sheep that have unusually long, coarse, tough wool. Lesser brands mix their wool with nylon, claiming it adds strength. Stan Kohls, Filson's owner, says that nylon just permits manufacturers to use shorter, cheaper, wool fibers, which in turn makes for weaker .yarn and quicker holes at the elbows and knees. This attention to quality may not seem like good business-their $250 jacket has an approximate lifespan of 50 years-but they don't seem to care.

Kohls says, "We want to build it so it'll never wear out." Apparently he's succeeding. As one customer wrote in 1988 while ordering the second Filson coat in his life, "I purchased my first in 1938 for the price of $12.98. I wore it through rain, snow, sleet, and wind and it never let me down. I think I should put it in a museum."

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