Once the favourite cloth of Victorian gentlemen, the distinctive Harris Tweed has had a somewhat fusty image. This year, after many designers started using tweed in innovative winter and spring/summer collections, the twee looks set to be taken out of tweed as it becomes the Outer Hebrides’ hottest export.
Introduced in the 19th century, Harris Tweed is handwoven by the islanders of Lewis, Harris, Uist and Barra using pure virgin wool. This winter, designers seized upon its roughly hewn but sophisticated charms. Most notably, Vivienne Westwood (whose orb and satellite logo is inspired by the Harris Tweed emblem) but also Paul Smith, Margaret Howell, Balmain, Lanvin, Prada and Comme des Garçons.
Other smart tweed collections include Dashing Tweeds (dashingtweeds.co.uk), who sell through London’s Dover Street Market (doverstreetmarket.co.uk) and who recently started working with a specially commissioned variety of Harris. While, in the East End, the burgeoning DS Dundee label (dsdundee.com) has fuelled the trend with a range of modern Harrington jackets. Similarly, designer Sara Berman’s tweed tulip coats have been a sensation at Anthropologie (saraberman.co.uk) and her spring/summer collection looks set to do the same.
Closer to home Deryck Walker, Designer of the Year at two Scottish Style Awards, recently opened Micro, a tiny, industrial-chic store in Glasgow’s Argyll Arcade (deryckwalker.net) full of wearable tailoring-with-a-twist in Harris Tweed from heritage wool merchants Holland & Sherry.
It’s all a long way since one of the most important mills, the Harris Tweed Textiles (HTT) Mill, was rescued from the brink of receivership back in 2003. HTT now designs some of the most unusual and desirable varieties of tweed, and the American arm of the company — Harris Tweed Textiles (USA) Inc — has won a British Airways (USA) Opportunities Grant. Look out for the off-white Harris Tweed wedding dress designed by Ann McCallum of Hebridean Dreams and made from fabric from HTT. Next month the island’s Harris Tweed Artisans Co-operative (lewisstudio.co.uk/HTAC), which has ten members who use the fabric in a range of diverse products, celebrates its first birthday.
With the opening of Glasgow’s new hotel, Blythswood Square (townhouse company.com/blythswood square), Harris Tweed has strolled off the catwalk and into the living room. Graven, the interior designers of the hotel, have incorporated the textile throughout. Right now the future for Harris Tweed looks as bright as one of its bolder fuchsia and sapphire blue checks.
