Tweed: History, Culture and Design

Tweed is a widely used and internationally popular textile that has its origins in Scotland in the 1820s. This project aims to significantly advance knowledge about this hugely under-researched textile. For example, Clifford Gulvin's The Tweedmakers, which was the last major academic publication on the history of tweed, was written nearly forty years ago and there is a strong need to re-interpret this textile using more up-to-date methods. Furthermore, this project will be the first to examine the history of factory-produced tweeds in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The researcher has been studying tweed since 2001, work that has primarily focused on the late nineteenth century. This Fellowship will substantially further develop and extend this inter-disciplinary investigation. The international dissemination of the research will primarily be through a major book, titled Tweed, to be published by Berg Publishers.This publication will explore the history of tweed including its manufacture, design and consumption from its emergence in the 1820s to the present. The project will be the first to consider in depth the crucially important inter-connections between the histories of different types of tweed, from craft-produced Harris tweeds, to factory-produced ones from the British mainland. The research will focus primarily on British contexts, but given the importance of exports to this industry, it will also examine the international consumption of tweed. For example, exuberantly coloured tweeds designed by Bernat Klein and made in the Scottish Borders were widely used by French couturiers in the 1960s. This project will also further develop previous research on the inter-relationships of tweed with major social and cultural changes in terms of class, gender and local and national identities in the late nineteenth century. For example, in that era tweed was strongly coded as masculine and the project will explore whether changing gender relationships have continued to play an important role in the design and consumption of these textiles. A previous innovative article by the researcher has shown the important physical and conceptual links of tweed with place or landscape and with changing ideas about British, Scottish, and English identities in the late nineteenth century. This research will be extended to examine the hitherto unexplored relationships between fashion textiles and urban and rural landscapes in the eras of late modernity and post-modernity. Tweed is often associated in contemporary media with Britishness, Englishness, heritage and tradition. Furthermore, the interpretation of tweed by leading fashion designers, such as Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood, has focused on a fascination with its supposedly 'traditional' character. This study seeks to explore and explain how these connotations relate to the history of this textile and why they have such a strong contemporary resonance. The project also addresses the broader objective of aiming to develop and encourage new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of wool textiles. Through its focus on the design and consumption of tweed, it seeks to raise alternative questions to the existing research on British wool textiles, which focuses almost exclusively on taking economic history approaches to the English trade before 1830. The scarcity of published research on tweed means that the book will mainly draw on original sources, most of which have not been previously published. For example, this will include the Ceemo Tweed and Bernat Klein Collections held by National Museums Scotland. It will also involve interviews with individuals linked to the contemporary tweed industry. The research will also be disseminated through a partnership with Scottish Borders Council Museum and Gallery Service, which will involve collaborating on the development of an exhibition and associated education events.

This Fellowship project addresses an accessible topic that is of interest beyond the academic research community. Tweed is widely worn internationally and it remains an integral part of the British fashion identity. The project aims to significantly alter current knowledge about the history of tweed and to disseminate that research as widely as possible. Given the lack of competing titles, the book Tweed is likely to become the new standard text on the subject. This comprehensive and well-illustrated text will be of relevance as a source of visual and textual information. The project is likely to benefit professionals and students linked to the media and fashion and textile industries, both in the UK and internationally. In particular, it will help to stimulate innovation by raising awareness about the contemporary tweed industry amongst practising designers. It will also help to improve the quality of information disseminated about tweed in various contexts, including through the commercial and media sectors, thus benefiting the tweed industry and wider public.

The project addresses a topic that is highly significant to the local heritage of specific parts of Britain, most particularly the Scottish Borders region and the Outer Hebrides. Despite major decline in the tweed industries in these locales, the surviving firms are still of economic and social importance to these rural areas and to the UK. For example, employment in the Harris Tweed industry is important in helping to stem de-population from the remote Outer Hebrides. The project will therefore be of benefit to the local communities in these areas both socially,culturally and economically, as it will produce a new framework of understanding about tweed both past and present. Contemporary tweed producers export the vast majority of their cloths, including selling to high-profile fashion houses such as Chanel, Yves St Laurent and Prada. This design input of British mills to international fashion is usually anonymous and unacknowledged. Through its research on the tweed industry of today, this project will help to raise the international public profile of this important but fragile industry. Furthermore, previous discussions with the Chief Executive of the Harris Tweed Authority, have identified that heritage is very important to the Harris Tweed industry and brand. The project therefore has excellent potential to stimulate mutually beneficial dialogue between the applicant and industry figures about the history of tweed and how it is marketed today.

The project will also be of benefit to the museum and archive sectors, as given the prevalence of tweed it features in many collections, both in the UK and internationally. The increased understanding about tweed generated by this project will help to improve the interpretion of these objects for the public. More specifically, the project research will assist staff at Scottish Borders Museums working on a small exhibition on Borders tweeds for 2013 and the associated education programme, as the applicant will deliver talks and input expertise based on her research. These events will provide educational and inspiring experiences for members of the general public, including senior school students. They will also involve an exchange of knowledge and ideas between local museum staff and audiences and the national museum-based researcher.The book Tweed is also likely to appeal to a wider public interested in textiles, fashion, gender, history and British identity. Members of the public who visit the proposed exhibition on Bernat Klein to be held at NMS in 2013/14 will also benefit from the project research as it will enhance the quality of the initial display concepts.

The Fellowship project would establish the applicant as the leading international expert on the history of tweed. It will further develop expertise that will be available as an ongoing public resource through the applicants post at NMS.