Harris Tweed is a hand-woolen fabric woven by islanders in their home in the Outer Scottish Hebrides, completed in the Outer Hebrides, and made of pure, dyed pure wool in Outer Hebrides. This definition, Harris Tweed's quality standards and name protection is enshrined in the Harris Tweed Act 1993.
Video Harris Tweed
History
For centuries, the inhabitants of the island of Lewis and Harris, Uists, Benbecula and Barra have woven fabric by hand, calling it 'cla²-mÃÆ'²r' in the original Gaelic or 'big cloth'.
Initially, these handmade fabrics were woven by crofters for family use, ideal for protection against cold climates in Northern Scotland. Surplus fabrics are often traded or used as barter, eventually becoming a form of currency among the islanders. For example, it is not uncommon for rental rates to be paid with blankets or cloth lengths. At the end of the 18th century, spinning of wool yarn from local raw materials was a staple industry for crofters. Finished handmade fabrics are exported to the Scottish mainland and traded along with other commodities produced by islanders, such as dry skin, goats and deer.
The original name of the cloth is tweel , Scots for twill, it is woven in a slimmer pattern than plain. A traditional story has a name that appears almost by chance. Around 1830, a merchant in London received a letter from Hawick's company about several wheels. London traders misinterpreted handwriting, understood it as a trade name taken from the Tweed River that flows through the Scottish Borders. Furthermore, the items were advertised as Tweed, and the name has remained there ever since.
When the Industrial Revolution reached Scotland, the mainland manufacturers turned to mechanization, but the Outer Hebrides maintained their traditional processes. Lewis and Harris had long been known for the advantages of weaving done there, but until the mid-nineteenth century, the fabric was manufactured primarily for home use or for local markets.
When Alexander, the 6th Dunmore Earl, inherited the Northern Harris Estate from his father in 1836, the wool production at Outer Hebrides was still fully manual. Wool is washed with soft and watery water before it is stained with dyes from local plants and moss. It was then processed and spun, before being woven by hand by crofters in their cottage. Traditional island pieces are characterized by color spots achieved through the use of vegetable dyes, including lichen dyes called "crottle" ( Parmelia saxatilis and Parmelia omphalodes ) that provide deep red or purple- brown and rusty respectively). These moss are the origin of the older aroma of the older Harris Tweed.
After the death of Dunmore's 6th Earl in 1843, the responsibility for his property on the Isle of Harris was forwarded to his wife, Lady Catherine Herbert. Lady Catherine noticed the marketing and high quality potential of the locally produced wool fabric by two sisters from the village of Strond. Known as Sister Paisley, after the town where they practiced, the fabrics woven by them were of a very high quality than those produced by untrained carpenters. In 1846, the Countess commissioned the sisters to weave wool with the Murray family tartan. He sent a ready-made cloth to be used as a jacket for gamekeepers and ghillies on the ground. Being wear resistant and waterproof, new clothes are perfect for life in the Dunmores estate. Lady Catherine noticed that the jacket worn by her staff could be the ideal outfit for the usual outdoor lifestyle among her friends.
Countess began promoting local textiles as fashionable fabrics for hunting and sportswear. Soon became the cloth of choice for the landing aristocrats and the aristocracy of the time, including members of the inner circle of Queen Victoria. With a demand set for this high quality "Harris Tweed", Lady Catherine sends more girls to mainland Scotland for training. He enhanced the yarn production process to create more consistent and workable fabrics and by the late 1840s, merchants from Edinburgh to London supplied the privileged class with Harris Tweed hand woven.
From this point on, the Harris Tweed industry grew, peaking at 7.6 million yards in 1966.
Maps Harris Tweed
Harris Tweed Authority
Because the demand for Harris Tweed expanded in the first decade of the 20th century, there was an influx of weavers into the industry seeking wages and soon lower quality was made by the inexperienced weavers of the yarns imported from China, giving rise to the name demeaning 'Stornoway Tweed'. This inferior wool fabric affects the market for the traditional Harris Tweed made by the experienced weaver of hand spun yarn.
Legal protection on behalf of Harris Tweed with established trademarks and standard definition is important. Groups of merchants both at Lewis and Harris are applied to the Trade Council for registered trademarks. When this trade mark, Orb, was finally awarded, the Council insisted that it should be given to all the islands of the Outer Hebrides ie to Lewis, North and South Uist, Benbecula and Barra, as well as Harris, the reason for this decree was that wool was made in which is exactly the same on all the islands.
In 1909, after much negotiation and bitterness from merchants at Harris who felt that trademarks should be given exclusively to Harris, the Orb Trademark was granted. The Harris Tweed Association, a voluntary body, was formed to protect the use of Orb Trademarks and to protect the use of the name 'Harris Tweed' from imitation.
The original definition attached to the Orb Trade Mark states that: Harris Tweed means wool thread, hand-spun, hand-woven and dyed by crofters and cottar in the Outer Hebrides.
In 1993, the new legal entity to keep Orb Trade Mark, the Harris Tweed Authority, replaced the original Harris Tweed Association. Also in 1993, a Parliament Act, Harris Tweed Act 1993, founded the Harris Tweed Authority as the successor of the Harris Tweed Association, the goal being "to promote and maintain the originality, standard and reputation of Harris Tweed; to prevent being sold as Harris Tweed from material not included in the definition... "
The original Harris Tweed definition is the law: "Harris Tweed means the wool that has been hand-knit by the islanders at their home in Outer Hebrides, completed on the island of Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra and some of its purity The Outer Hebrides) and made from pure pure wool dyed and played in the Outer Hebrides "
Today, every 50 meters from Harris Tweed is checked by inspectors from the Harris Tweed Authority before being branded, by hand, with Mark Orb.
The Harris Tweed Authority is a legally appointed governmental body responsible for upholding the integrity of Harris Tweed in accordance with the Harris Tweed Act of 1993. They are involved in inciting litigation, Orb Cap publishing, factory inspection and warehouse weavers, industry promotion and keeping Harris Tweed over name of the islanders of the Outer Hebrides. Based in the capital of the island of Stornoway Authority consists of an Executive Chief, Secretary and two inspectors and stampers. There is also an unpaid member's supervisory board and a supportive legal team.
Harris Tweed Factory
There are three factories operating on the islands, each with a public facing company associated with them. The company handles Harris Tweed marketing, sales, customer service and distribution to customers while their factories deal with certain aspects of the production process.
- The Scottish Tweed is owned by Brian Haggas of John Haggas Group who, after purchasing KM Group and the Stornoway-based plant, founded Harris Tweed Scotland Limited in 2006. The company manufactures Harris Tweed men's jackets and retail from online stores them or from a gentleman retailer. They are the only vertical company that manufactures and markets Harris Tweed jackets in this way. Their Stornoway factory is the oldest manufacturer in Outer Hebrides and has been producing Harris Tweed since 1906.
- The Carloway plant is an independent wholesale producer of Harris Tweed in the village of Carloway and the smallest of three existing Harris Tweed textile factories. It uses traditional craft machines to produce unique, individualistic and bespoke Harris Tweed fabrics. Factory owners announced in January 2016 that they are looking for buyers for business and therefore the future of the plant is uncertain.
- Harris Tweed Hebrides, which reopened its former factory at Shawbost in November 2007. The company's main shareholder is Ian Taylor, a Scottish businessman who has spent the last 30 years in the oil industry with Vitol. Weavers
- Catherine Murray, Countess of Dunmore
- Traditional dye from the Scottish Highlands
- Tweed (cloth)
- Twill
- Hunter, Janet: The Islanders and Orb . Acair Ltd. 2001. ISBNÃ, 0-86152-736-4
- Dunbar, John Telfer: Scottish costume . London: Batsford, 1984, ISBNÃ, 0-7134-2534-2, 1984 (paperback 1989, ISBNÃ, 0-7134-2535-0)
- Fraser, Jean: Traditional Scottish Dye . Canongate, 1983, ISBNÃ, 0-86241-108-4
- Vogler, Gisela (2001). A Harris Way of Life: Marion Campbell (1909-1996) . West Tarbert: Harris Voluntary Service. ISBN: 090396029X.
All the weavers are self-employed and can work as 'weavers' assigned by one of three factories or as 'independent weavers' who make and sell their own cloth, sometimes with personal commissions. Mill weavers are equipped with warps and yarns directly from the factory along with instructions on how the fabric should be woven. Once the wool is woven, it is collected by the plant for finishing and stamping, and then sold by the factory. The independent weavers on the other hand must buy the yarn from the factory and wrap it themselves, often with their own designs. The independent weavers then send their woven fabrics to the factory for finishing and stamping (which they pay as services) before being returned to the weavers for sale on their own. Weavers can work as both weaver mill and independent weavers.
The Harris Tweed Industry Liaison Group meets regularly to discuss issues facing the industry and consists of various stakeholders such as factory owners, weavers representatives, HTA officials, funding bodies, local council members, buyers and other industry figures.
Production process
The creation of Harris Tweed begins with pure woolly wool hairs that are shorn from Cheviot and Scottish Blackface sheep. Although most of the wool is grown mainly in mainland Scotland and England, in early summer island communities still join together to collect and shear local sheep to add to the mix. Both types of wool are mixed together to benefit from their unique qualities and characteristics
After shaving the wool is rubbed before it is sent in large bales to the factory from the main wool manufacturer where it is then dyed in various colors for mixing.
Colored wool and newly dyed white are weighed in prescribed proportions and then mixed by hand to get the right recipe to get the correct color. Then scratched between the mechanical rollers, teasing the teases and mixing the fibers thoroughly before being separated into fragile embryonic threads. This soft thread then has a spin given to it because it is spun to provide maximum strength for weaving. Spinning threads are fastened to the top of the coil to provide feed material (the left to right thread) and the warp (vertical yarn) supplied to the weavers.
This very important process sees thousands of warp threads gathered in long rolls in very specific sequences and injures large blocks ready to be sent, along with threads for feed, to the weavers.
All Harris Tweeds are hand-woven on pedal looms in each weaver's house with Bonas-Griffith double-sized boneries in the case of weavers, or typically older Hattersley 'long' looms in the case of independent weavers. Weavers will 'bind' their warp with each end of the yarn through the eyes of their loom fish in a certain order then start weaving, correcting the errors or damage that has occurred until it is finished.
The wool then returns to the factory in a 'greasy state' and here it passes over the hands of the villain who corrects all the flaws.
Once ready the fabric is finished. Dirt, grease and other impurities are removed by washing and punching in soda and soapy water before being dried, steamed, pressed and cut.
The final process is an examination by an independent Harris Tweed Authority who visits the factory weekly, before their Mark Orb trademark application is ironed into the fabric as a genuine seal.
Harris Tweed today
In 2012 weavers and factories from the Harris Tweed industry produced one million meters of Harris Tweed, compared to 450,000 meters in 2009, which is the highest production figure in 17 years. The last three years have seen Harris Tweed remain "on-trend" and regular features in both High Street stores and catwalks in couture collections and the increase in popularity has led to the training of a new generation of weavers to meet the demands of production.
Men's clothing brands such as Tommy Bahama, Topman, Barutti Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom, Thomas Pink, J. Crew Nigel Cabourn, Hugo Boss, Paul Smith, Primark, and Prince of Scots use cloth for jackets, outerwear, and suits.
Footwear brands also use Harris Tweed, especially Nike, Dr Martens, Aigle, Red Wing Shoes, and Clarks. The luxury interior market also expanded following the use of more than 90,000 meters of Harris Tweed at 5 Star Blythswood Square Hotel Glasgow in 2008.
New markets emerge in BRIC countries and more traditional markets are reviving in the US and Europe as well as East Asian countries including South Korea. Estimated sales are optimistic for fabric.
See also
References
Further reading
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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