Congratulations to Harris Tweed Hebrides

SHAWBOST-BASED Harris Tweed Hebrides have been warmly congratulated by the Harris Tweed Authority on scooping the premier award at the Scottish Style Awards in Glasgow

A team from the company were in the city to accept the Outstanding Contribution to Style 2009 award.

The award recognised the company’s success in forging links with leading designers and its role in helping to revitalise the Harris Tweed industry.

Earlier this year, Harris Tweed Hebrides won the Textile Brand of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards.

The mill are also responsible for producing around 95 per cent of the Harris Tweed on the market.

HTA chief executive Lorna Macaulay congratulated the company and said they leading helping put Harris Tweed back on the world style stage.

Lorna said: “The Authority are delighted that work of Harris Tweed Hebrides staff has been recognised at this level – they have achieved much in only two short years in business and the Harris Tweed brand has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in the fashion an style stake as a direct result.

Creative director Mark Hogarth – who has led the company’s collaborations with designers – and two young members of the HTH management team, Kelly Jenkins and Alison Mackenzie, accepted the award on behalf of the company.

In their acceptance speeches, Mark described Harris Tweed as “the champagne of fabrics” and said that every person who values style “should have at least one piece of Harris Tweed in his or her wardrobe”.

Kelly added that the award was for “the weavers, the darners and everyone else involved in the process”.

One of HTH’s main design partners, Deryck Walker, carried off the Designer of the Year award for the second year running with a collection based mainly on Harris Tweed.

Indeed three of the short-listed designers in this category – Deryck, Judy Clarke and Viddler & Nixon – featured tweed from Shawbost in their catwalk shows.

There was another accolade for the fabric when Vivienne Westwood, who was given the International Style Icon Lifetime Achievement Award, spoke about her love of Scottish fabrics “starting with Harris Tweed”.

Harris Tweed Hebrides chairman, Brian Wilson, said: “We did not enter or apply for any awards so it is good to know that the transformation of Harris Tweed’s fortunes has been so widely noticed and appreciated.

“Our aim is to ensure that Harris Tweed Hebrides is synonymous with style, quality and good taste whether in fashion, interiors or accessories so this piece of recognition is particularly welcome”.

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