21/04/2024
Join us on our journey to uncover hidden gems in the world of small-scale creators as we venture to Glasgow for an enlightening conversation with Gillian McNeill of LAW Design Studio. Gillian shares her journey from a budding creative spirit to establishing her own independent venture. We delve into her passion for design, her following the conventional path in fashion…
05/11/2023
This week I’m heading back to Scotland for a chat with Clare Campbell of Prickly Thistle, a self-proclaimed rebel mill outside Inverness. From a background as a chartered accountant, Clare took a u-turn, or maybe a swerve, when she discovered a passion for the traditional tartan and from there decided to establish a mill, using ancient looms, with no clue…
17/09/2021
After a long career in textile design and fabrication, Sam Goates set up shop as a solitary weaver in the port of Buckie in the North of Scotland. Bringing a down at heel bitsa this, bitsa that Hattersley single-width loom back to life to weave custom cloths for discerning customers worldwide. We talk about Sam’s time in Australia, how she…
03/02/2021
This weeks episode is all about Harris Tweed, a legend among cloths and arguably the most socially significant of fabrics. My guests this week are Lorna Macaulay and Rebecca Hutton from the Hebridean Islands. Lorna is CEO of the Harris Tweed Authority, promoters and protectors of the tweed, and Rebecca Hutton, an independent single-width weaver at Taobhtuath Tweeds. We talk…
09/10/2020
My guest today is John Sugden of Campbell’s of Beauly, a traditional highland tailor and accessories shop outside Inverness with a continuous history going back to 1858. We get into his background in the garment industry, the place of traditional tailoring and fabrics in modern times, how workers on the Highland estates still use unique tweeds for their workwear, doing…
03/03/2018
If you’d asked me a year ago how Harris Tweed was made, I’d have replied something close to this: The wool comes to the mill and is made into yarn. The yarn is transported to the weavers at their crofts and they weave it into tweed. The tweed is then transported and made into many wonderful things. Job done. Sounds…
23/02/2018
If you’d asked me a year ago how Harris Tweed was made, I’d have replied something close to this: The wool comes to the mill and is made into yarn. The yarn is transported to the weavers at their crofts and they weave it into tweed. The tweed is then transported and made into many wonderful things. Job done. Sounds…
16/02/2018
If you’d asked me a year ago how Harris Tweed was made, I’d have replied something close to this: The wool comes to the mill and is made into yarn. The yarn is transported to the weavers at their crofts and they weave it into tweed. The tweed is then transported and made into many wonderful things. Sounds pretty plausible,…
13/06/2017
While I finish my part one of my epic report of visiting the Hebrides to look at Harris Tweed, I though it would be nice to recap with the Instagram photos I posted while on my trip 2 weeks ago. Maybe you missed a few, or even all, or maybe you’ll just savour the opportunity of taking it in again?…
17/12/2016
Great title, right? Not something I came up with, mind you, I purloined it in a dastardly manner from an old friend who wrote a painfully meticulous book detailing every little component of the early Jaguar XK120, definitely a cult object in it’s own right. Todays post though? The deerstalker hat. Traditionally a hunting cap first heard of in the 1860s and…