Historic textile mill recreates Victorian designs for 200th anniversary of tweed

A historic textile mill which produces tweed for international fashion brands such as Chanel has recreated Victorian designs for the 200th anniversary of the woollen fabric.

Lovat Mill, in Hawick, Scottish Borders, was saved in 1999 by two entrepreneurs who were working for another tweed producer.

It has since produced cloth for Madonna, the King and Taylor Swift, and to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the weaving technique, it has revealed 17 designs – inspired by archives in 19th-century notebooks found in the attic – which will be released to fashion brands.

Tweed was created in Scottish Borders textile mills in 1826 after a misreading from a London tradesman of its previous name, tweel.

Lovat Mill was the last operating mill, and was bought by textile experts Alan Cumming and Stephen Rendle in 1999.

Mr Cumming, now the design director, and Mr Rendle, now the chairman, rescued the mill and turned it into an international clothmaker which has been popular with global fashion houses for 25 years, and takes commissions from Milan and Japan.

The designers both attended the Scottish College of Textiles, in nearby Galashiels, and had careers at Allied Textiles, designing and exporting cloth for the international firm.

After a business meeting in Milan, a contact suggested that they buy a textiles mill in order to continue working in their craft, and the pair raised capital to buy Lovat Mill.

In the late 1990s, they discovered 15 Victorian archive books in the mill’s attic, which inspired 17 anniversary cloths released for the anniversary, including Shepherd’s Check, originally created for shepherds on individual estates.

Mr Cumming, 63, said: “We opened those books and realised we were sitting on the very DNA of Scottish tweed. Hundreds of designs, all handwritten, all still usable.

“It was like the mill tapping us on the shoulder and saying, ‘Well? What are you going to do with this?’”

The pair worked through the night producing samples, and drove in a Peugeot 406 all the way to Lake Como in Italy, to meet industry contacts.

Mr Rendle, 70, said: “We arrived the next evening with new cloth in the boot. That meeting nailed a critical relationship.”

Dolce & Gabbana was the first major client to take an interest and requested 10 metres of tweed, followed up by a request for 2,000 metres of cloth.

Mr Rendle said: “We thought they’d lost the parcel. Then the fourth order came back at 2,000 metres. That was the moment we knew we were in the game.”

Global brands including Chanel and Gucci sought out its fabrics, and the King also commissioned the Dumfries House Tweed, as well as a new cloth for the coronation.

Designer Ruth Duff, 36, who worked on the Dumfries House Tweed, said: “You don’t need to go to Milan when Milan is coming to Hawick.”

The textile design house is unconcerned about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Mr Cumming said: “AI can generate patterns, but it can’t create character. It can’t sit with a customer and interpret what they want.

“Other mills could copy what we do technically, but they can’t copy how we work.”