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Private Notes
Harris Tweed is the most iconic of all tweeds, woven by hand at home, by an islander in the Outer Hebrides, and adored for decades the world over. Or it was. As our tweed saga begins, the world has forgotten Harris Tweed and the island industry is in terminal decline. Savile Row tailor Patrick Grant heads north from Mayfair in search of new supplies of the only cloth that will satisfy his fanatical tweed customers, and discovers that all is not well - and the supply may be about to end. A Yorkshire textile baron has stepped in to save Harris tweed - or has he? Brian Haggas offers weavers and mill workers constant work, but plans to reduce the traditional eight thousand patterns to just four - and to dominate the world market in Harris tweed jackets. The majority of the hundred and twenty weavers still producing tweed respond to the challenge and produce thousands of metres of fabric. But then disaster strikes - the jackets aren't selling and the workforce are laid off. The islanders take steps to protect their heritage - a beautiful, sustainable and ethnic British cloth, as much part of island culture as the gaelic language - but are they too late?
Harris Tweed is gasping for breath. Yorkshire textile baron Brian Haggas still owns the biggest mill on the islands, but he is not making any more tweed before he has sold the thousands of jackets he still has. With sales not going as well as expected he has had to lay off all the freelance weavers. Now, as the islanders finish celebrating Christmas, he flies in for another dramatic act to completely close down the mill and lay off the workforce. At this very low point in the Harris Tweed story, a new chief executive of the Harris Tweed Authority begins work. She is charged with getting the cloth out of the doldrums and back onto the world stage. So do the new owners of the remaining two tiny mills - the only places on earth left making Harris Tweed. Alan Bain, co-owner of the smallest operation, Carloway Mill, is making overtures to an Italian car manufacturer - will the Europeans swoon at the prospect of Harris Tweed car seat covers? At the Shawbost Mill they are backing the young Scottish designer Deryck Walker to produce groundbreaking tweed in Mediterranean hues. Meanwhile, a posse of London tweed fanciers comes to the islands in search of Harris Tweed to see if it is still available or gone forever. They find a fabled source of ancient cloth, the Turin Shrouds of Harris Tweed The fight-back has begun.
The Harris Tweed industry is recovering slowly. Textile tycoon Brian Haggas left the island and is still trying to sell tens of thousands of jackets. The two small mills have stepped into the breach to make all the Harris Tweed and are unexpectedly working flat out - it seems there is a real market for Harris Tweed after all. The small mills want to market their tweed, but how? Shawbost Mill send their star designer Deryck Walker to Japan to consult with a marketing guru. Is his new clothing - traditional yet edgily modern - on the right track? At the smaller Carloway Mill, Scottish-American owner Alan Bain wants to tinker with the very DNA of the tweed, softening it and even considering adding cashmere. But is he committing tweed heresy? The Harris Tweed Authority will try to stop him. They are charged with defending the cloth and the famous orb trademark from all corners, and chief executive Lorna McCaulay is deluged with examples of counterfeit tweed, and even a pop group who want to name themselves after the stuff. The film ends with the stark conclusion that, despite the success of the small mills, unless Haggas reopens his mill and undertakes to make large amounts of tweed, Harris Tweed will never get back to where it was. Will he change and adapt his firm views to help Harris Tweed succeed?
