Back to Basics Series – Day 1
25th March
Our audience has grown substantially of late, and we love the daily interactions across our social media channels – so we’ve decided to go back to basics to cover a lot of the questions and searches regarding our unique industry.
Over the next ten days we will hopefully give a valuable insight into the history and methodology behind all the glorious fabric we love to share.
Origins of Harris Tweed
From time immemorial, the inhabitants of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland have woven a beautiful and intricate cloth the world knows simply as Harris Tweed®.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the cloth was only used and traded locally. Then, in 1846, Lady Dunmore (widow of the landowner of Harris, the Earl of Dunmore) had the clan tartan replicated by Harris weavers in tweed. The results proved so successful that she began to devote much time and effort to marketing the tweed to her wealthy friends further afield.
In no time at all, sales of the island cloth were established with merchants across the country, which saw the birth of the Harris Tweed® industry as we know it.