Its a curse  

SDR
I like your story about "paying for the restraint".
One of my pet peeves is that aesthetic restraint has a hard time getting noticed, especially when surrounded by clumsier attempts at art making, or design.
The easy trick NOT indulged in can get lost in the white noise so easily
Reminds me of how easy it used to be to find good Modern stuff. It used to hide out so well in the clutter of the thrift shop or flea market, because its restraint didnt show there.
Not until you got it home, and gave it some room to breathe did the restraint get a chance to do its thing.
My syntax is weak today.

Erggh synthetics or that microsuede stuff, its like rolling around on a pub carpet at 4am. Good fabric lasts an amazingly long time, I have a linen wool mix (I think) on a 45 year old sofa and it looks better than something from a chain store thats 10 years old. and does a lot better than cheap leather in the long run. 
I imagine its the lanolin that resists the stains, probabaly worth replacing that with some wool wash.

I don't think it's lanolin---that stuff washes out pretty readily and I doubt would survive the processing that wool undergoes in dyeing and weaving.  The only lanolin-impregnated wool that I know of is natural undyed yarn for knitting.  I mean, wool that is ready for use.
It's probably more because it's like human hair---same stuff, keratin.  Most stuff washes out of your hair pretty easily.  And actually, when you think about it, sheep get pretty grimy when they've been milling about in the elements for a year (?) before getting shorn, and all of that comes out nicely in the wash before the fleece is carded and spun into yarns for weaving.  
Wool is pretty great stuff!!