Heritage
Westwood Heritage: A History with Harris Tweed®
11/11/2024 — Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne had a sensibility for fabrics that others overlooked, at a time when most fashion was driven by ease of wear and care. ‘I’ve utilised convention to make things unorthodox,’ she expressed. Her use of Harris Tweed® (a rough-textured fabric, woven in Scotland from pure wool) was a testament to this, as she subverted silhouettes, prints or knitwear, to create a language of her own. On the ‘Harris Tweed’ collection from Autumn-Winter 1987/88, Vivienne noted, “Here, I have taken the vocabulary of royalty and traditional British symbols – and used it to my advantage.”
Now a signature style of the house, Vivienne’s use of Harris Tweed® made the hard-wearing fabric accessible, particularly across high fashion. The long-standing alliance between Harris Tweed® and Vivienne Westwood began after Vivienne took a trip to the Island in the 1980s. She was part of a group of young designers who came up to do a competition for the ‘Harris Tweed® Association.’ For well over a century, islanders of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland have woven the intricate cloth by hand – which is currently the only fabric in the world protected by its own Act of Parliament. This means that by law, the cloth must be made from pure virgin wool, which has been dyed and spun on the islands - and handwoven at the home of the weaver. From start to finish, the cloth is in the hands of skilled and experienced artisans who oversee every stage of production, utilising generations of knowledge to produce a product that is defined by quality and style.
Vivienne first worked with Harris Tweed® to create bondage trousers in 1976, which were sold at the ‘Worlds End’ boutique - at the time named ‘Seditionaries.’ The Autumn-Winter 1987/88 ‘Harris Tweed’ collection would later become instrumental in reviving its use as a ‘fashion fabric’ – and led to other designers using the material in their own collections, while lending a much-needed boost to the local industry. For the 'Harris Tweed' collection, Vivienne played with stereotypes of ‘Britishness,’ with a focus on tailoring, offered alongside archaic British accessories, such as John Bull hats. The styles of garments were based on images of the pre-teen princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in the 1930s: neat A-line coats and jackets over jodhpurs, or mini-crini skirts, all in Harris Tweed® – paired with contemporary fabrics, such as denim. The conservative style of the royal family and English upper classes were reflected in twinsets, executed by John Smedley in tones of primrose, taupe and Spanish red, adorned with pearls.
For eveningwear, models wore faux-ermine tippets and garter sashes pinned with jewels. The colours of the Harris Tweed®, Vivienne said, were in themselves ‘like gemstones.’ She accordingly used them in collaboration with the London milliner Stephen Jones, to create a spoof of the Queen's crown – a soft hat, fabricated from strips of Harris Tweed®. To note, the colours of traditional Harris Tweed® fabrics are chosen to echo the landscapes of Scotland. A special characteristic of the cloth is the merging of tones to represent the Island’s scenery, where even a solid colour can be made up of multiple shades.
For the Autumn-Winter 2024/25 collection, Harris Tweed® is presented across bags and ready-to-wear styles, echoing the vibrant hues of archive styles. The raw quality of the Scottish fabric is paired with denim this season, applied across accessories, coats and a corset skirt. As a final touch, the Harris Tweed® branding is proudly displayed on the outside of Yasmine bags this season, lined in our printed Union Jack cotton.
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