Tweed is good. Tweed works – even in the era of
GoreTex
Mary Miers
August 22,
2017
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/style/tweed-is-good-164133
Tweeds are woven into the very warp and weft
of the Scottish landscape, as Mary Miers discovered during a visit to a tweed
house that’s been making this versatile fabric for 160 years. Photographs by
Roddy Mackay.
In the old
Jacket Room at Campbell’s of Beauly, I’m being treated to the Highland
equivalent of a visit to a Moroccan carpet shop. Sipping tea, I watch entranced
as bolt after bolt of tweed is unfurled before me, each more seductive than the
last. The litany of placenames – Auchnafree, Fannich, Flichity, Kinlochewe –
combines with a kaleidoscope of pattern and palette to transform the tumble of
fragrant cloth into a sensuous map of the Highlands.
Each of
these tweeds is not just the livery of a sporting estate, but an image of its
landscape: camouflage for the hill. Fabric woven with mixes of yarns to echo
the contrasting brilliance of plants, rocks and sands works on the eye in the
same way as an Impressionist or Pointillist painting; the effect is to break up
outlines so that the wearer merges into the background.
As early as
1845, the 15th Lord Lovat had yarns of light blue, bright yellow, chrome
yellow, dark yellow-brown and white woven into a mixture that matched the
springtime slopes of Loch Morar on his West Highland estate. Some years’ later,
the laird of Strathconon sent his stalkers up the hill with different
variations of tweed, so he could observe them from below with his spyglass and
see which created the best camouflage.
For the
stalkers and gillies at Balmoral, Prince Albert blended dark blue and white
spangled with crimson to imitate the hue and texture of the Cairngorms. When
delivering some newly made jackets to Balmoral recently, Tom Owen, Head Tailor
at Campbell’s, noticed how, when they caught the light, the flecks in the cloth
exactly matched those in the castle’s granite walls.
‘Only
Campbell’s gets its own brown tourist sign on the approaching roads’
For all the
proliferation of modern outdoor clothing, tweeds are still an integral part of
the Highland countryman’s attire and many local families – as well as regular
visitors to the Highlands – have been kitting themselves out at Campbell’s of
Beauly for generations.
The
village, sited beside the former ferry crossing at the head of the Beauly
Firth, can boast the russet-stoned ruin of a 13th-century priory, not to
mention the full complement of independent shops now rare in a rural
settlement. However, only Campbell’s gets its own brown tourist sign on the
approaching roads – but then, since 1858, when the famous tailor and purveyor
of tweeds and woollens was established, Campbell & Co can be said to have
put Beauly on the map.
Tourists
love the Highland Tweed House, not only for its atmospheric Victorian shop
interior, but because, sartorially, Campbell’s embodies their image of the
Highlands. The tartan-clad staff still serve from behind a long wooden counter
backed by shelves of caps, deerstalkers and brightly coloured shooting socks.
Bolts of tweed, jerseys and knitted garters line the walls on ancient pine
shelves; gloves, plaid scarves and rugs laid out on tables have recently been
joined by tweed dog collars, gun slips and game bags.
A few years
ago, when the Campbell siblings (fourth generation) announced their decision to
retire, there were fears that the shop would close or be radically transformed.
These have since been allayed by John and Nicola Sugden, an enterprising young
couple who took it on in 2015 and moved into the house above the shop. They
have preserved the character of this much-cherished family business while
developing it in new ways to make it viable for the future.
Ever since
Coco Chanel had fabric for her iconic suits woven by a Scottish mill, inspired
by her holidays in the Highlands – her lover, Bendor, the 2nd Duke of
Westminster, owned Reay Forest – tweed has been a prized fabric for dress
designers. The bulk of Campbell’s business is still tailored outdoor clothing
for the owners and employees of Scottish sporting estates, but, increasingly,
it’s doing a good trade in ladies’ fashion wear and cashmeres. This year, the
firm was awarded a Royal Warrant from The Queen.
Brushing
past a rail of nine newly made stalkers’ outfits awaiting delivery to Balmoral,
I clamber up a narrow wooden staircase to the toplit workrooms where the
garments are made. The Trouser Room still has its original tailor’s bench – a
raised area where the tailors used to sit cross-legged on the floor – as well
as the narrow wooden planks they laid across their knees to press the seams.
Campbell’s staff have since progressed to electric irons and flatbed sewing
machines, but they still cut out and make up everything by hand.
‘In this age of Gore-Tex and Lycra, the finest
tweed is still as practical as it is fashionable’
Assembling
a jacket is akin to sculpting, the tweed pieces being moulded over a haircloth
canvas interlining that forms the bones of the structure. Only cotton thread is
used – no pins – and every garment is fitted several times before it’s
finished.
The team of
nine seamstresses (some work part-time, depending on orders) is led by Mr Owen,
who’s been with the company for 47 years. His father, who came to Campbell’s
from Glasgow, was also a tailor and cutter. ‘It was a family within a family;
the Campbells worked the front shop, we worked the tailoring side of things,’
says Mr Owen.
As well as
being Head Tailor, he’s also the Cutter, responsible for measuring up clients
in the fitting room and then cutting out the tweed in a studio lined with paper
patterns dating back more than half a century.
The cloth
is tightly woven with a high twist yarn to make it extremely hard-wearing, but,
even so, a typical stalker’s suit – jacket, waistcoat and two pairs of plus
fours – is put through its paces over a season and has to be replaced every few
years, to the tune of about £1,000.
Plus fours
are not, as many think, simply trousers chopped off halfway, but a different
garment altogether. The seat is cut at an angle and there’s more fullness in
the knee for ease of movement as the wearer crawls and crouches in the heather.
Stalkers like them long, so that, when they’re walking through wet bracken, the
water drips over, rather than into, their boots from the flap of fabric at mid
calf.
With more
than 100 estates on its books, Campbell’s also commissions mills such as
Knockando Woolmill (established in 1784) and Glenlyon Tweed Mill to weave cloth
on behalf of its clients. Most have their own dedicated tweed, an idea
initiated in about 1840 by Janie Ellice, whose father, Gen Balfour of
Balbirnie, rented Glenfeshie with his friend Edward Ellice MP. She had the
notion of creating the equivalent of a regional tartan to identify the gillies
and keepers on the estate.
‘For
tartans, it’s the sett that’s crucial; tweed is all about colour’
The
Glenfeshie Check, as it was known (estate tweeds were originally described in
the same terms as traditional ‘district checks’), was modelled on the simple
black-and-white ‘plaid’ worn by the borders shepherds who came north with their
flocks, with the addition of a red overcheck (it was later adopted as the
Aberchalder tweed when the Ellices bought their estates in Glen Garry). There
have since been many variations on the Shepherd Check, forming a group of
tweeds known as ‘gun clubs’.
Another
group derives from the Glenurquhart Check, a design featuring areas of
houndstooth alternating with a sawtooth pattern that the Countess of Seafield
adopted for her estates in the 1840s. Then, there are the more tartan-style
designs with ‘windowpane’ overchecks and a fourth group of tweeds with a
speckled ground, sometimes with added overchecks.
‘Whereas,
for tartans, it’s the sett that’s crucial, tweed is all about colour,’ explains
Mr Sugden. ‘The yarns are usually mixture shades comprising up to seven
component colours and this, combined with the natural variations in the wool,
gives the yarns, and subsequently the cloth, its character. We’ve just been
asked by a weaving designer which variation of Letterewe we want copied. The
mill has been sent three batches and they’re all different. If you look at 20
years’ worth of orders for any tweed, you can see how it changes. The closer
they are in date, the more subtle the “drift”, but it’s an inevitable result of
re-weaving by different mills and changes in yarns and dyes.’
Some owners
have deliberately modified their tweed to make it blend in better with the
landscape. The present Achnacarry intensifies the grass-green mix of the
original 1906 palette. There have been several variants of Cawdor over the past
century.
‘When I
took the 1980s version to Hunters of Brora, the designer told me that it was a
“lounge tweed” and that something with crisper, less blurry colours would
perform the function of camouflage better,’ says Lord Cawdor, ‘so we
recalibrated the pattern in slightly different colours, keeping the red
overstripe. The colours also have slightly more contrasting tones, creating a
more monochromatic effect.’
When an
estate changes hands, the incoming owner sometimes likes to put his own stamp
on it by having the tweed completely redesigned – Strathconon, for example,
bears no similarity to the original diamond pattern of eight by eight threads
in shades of brown, introduced in about 1909. Others prefer to rebrand the
existing – perhaps changing the overcheck or introducing a few new colours –
and some tweeds, such as Allangrange and Flichity, are newly created.
What is
clear is that wearing outdoor clothing cut from the finest tweeds is still as
practical, in this age of Gore-Tex and Lycra, as it is fashionable.
– – –
Campbell’s
of Beauly: Highland Tweed House, High Street, Beauly – see
www.campbellsofbeauly.com
for more details.
Prince Charles opens tweed workshop where new
generation will learn their craft
Campbell's of Beauly preserves heritage with major
investment and expansion plan
Byinsider.co.uk
00:01, 7
AUG 2019 UPDATED09:35, 7 AUG 2019
https://www.insider.co.uk/news/prince-charles-opens-new-tweed-1884939
Heritage
clothing firm Campbell's of Beauly has celebrated the opening of a new
tailoring workshop with a visit from Prince Charles.
The Royal
Warrant-holding tailors and country outfitters was founded in 1858 and previously
held Royal Warrants to the Duke of Windsor and HRH the Queen Mother as tweed
mercers.
Joint
owners John and Nicola Sugden said the new facility would allow the Highland
company to employ more staff over the next 18 months to meet growing demand.
John said:
“We are thrilled that HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, accepted the
invitation to come and open our new workshop - this has been a wonderful day
for the whole team here at Campbell’s, but moreover for the wider community of
Beauly and the surrounding area.
"We
are grateful for The Prince’s support and we are extremely fortunate to have
enjoyed royal patronage for a number of years, including our most recent Royal
Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen.
“Here at
Campbell’s, we are committed to maintaining our craft and making it here in the
Highlands. We employ a team of eight in our tailoring department and hope that
the new expansion allows for us to take on two more staff in the short-medium
terms and potentially four more in the long term.”
John’s late
father James Sugden OBE was instrumental in setting up The Prince’s
Foundation’s Future Textiles training initiative at Dumfries House in Ayrshire
in 2015. The programme aims to breathe new life into Scotland’s textiles
industry by teaching traditional skills such as sewing, weaving and cutting to
school pupils and adults. In May 2018, John was appointed as co-chair of Future
Textiles alongside top fashion designer Patrick Grant.
John said:
“British manufacturing, particularly textiles, is on the up again and the
biggest issue that the industry faces is the shortage of skills due to a lack
of success and, thus, investment over the last 30 years.
"Step-by-step
we can collectively start to turn this predicament around, and it starts from
the grass roots upwards, and this means teaching traditional skills like those
taught at the Dumfries House through The Prince’s Foundation’s Future Textiles
programme.
“Hopefully
our investment here at Campbell’s will allow for future graduates to be able to
come to Campbell’s and gain work experience in a proper working environment.”
Campbell’s
tailoring business represents around 45% of the company’s gross sales.
John said:
“The foundations of our tailoring sales come from the many estates that
maintain age-old traditions of estate tweeds.
“This
relatively consistent business has given us the platform to be able to build
our new facility with confidence. We also have a significant business in tweed
jackets as well as Highlandwear, and the business has often been referred to as
The Guardians of Tweed. The hope is that we can continue to grow and increase
our footprint here in the Highlands”.
Over the
past five years, Scottish estates have spent in excess of £1.3million on tweed,
based on surveys conducted by Scotland’s seven regional moorland groups.
Representatives
from Invermark Estate, Millden, Hunthill and Reay Forrest estates attended the
official opening of the new workshop in their tweeds.
Lianne
MacLennan, coordinator of the Angus Glens Moorland Group and the Grampian
Moorland Group, said: “We are privileged that HRH The Duke of Rothesay has
taken the time to come and support the community in Beauly.
“Each
estate has its own identity by owning its very own tweed and it is something
that they all take pride in. Visitors come from all over the world to visit
estates in Scotland and the revenue they bring supports jobs and livelihoods in
remote areas.”
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