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TIMELESS
FINNIES THE JEWELLER
LAYERS OF EXPERIENCE:
left, Christopher Kane;
below left, key looks from Christopher Kane’s S/S18 collection include the ‘Fairy Liquid’ lace pleated skirt shown with a cropped patent leather jacket and poplin collar blouse; and a cage crystal T-shirt with icing embroidered long skirt
But the references are very much richer and more nuanced when you actually are Scottish. Sam McCoach was brought up with a granny who made kilts on the Royal Mile, who passed the passion down to her designer granddaughter, who studied at the Royal College of Art. Sam's brand, Le Kilt, is not only intent on capturing the style for a young generation, but she is one of the most determinedly ethical designers I’ve met in terms of supporting Scottish industry and craftspeople. All her cashmere sweaters are made in the Borders and, since last year, she’s had knitwear and gloves made in complex traditional Sanquhar black-and-white checkerboard stitches, by a small collective of knitters who have won funding to continue their painstaking skill in a community hall in the small town in the Nith valley of the same name. Sam, who’s also flying the flag for the return of the tam o’shanter (a spot-on shape, now that berets have returned this winter), met the Sanquhar ladies because of Prince Charles, when both were invited to Dumfries House for a day’s exhibition promoting Scottish textiles in 2015, and they ended up in adjacent booths. Perhaps that’s where the word about Le Kilt filtered through to Kensington Palace. Sam McCoach woke up one morning last year to pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing her black- and-white tweed kilt. They’ve flown out of her e-store ever since.
“SCOTTISH ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SELF- RELIANCE IS VERY MUCH PART OF IT TOO – THE WORK ETHIC IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED”
Modernising heritage, whilst being genuinely excited by and respectful of its meanings, is the key to this new surge. Nicholas Daley, the menswear newcomer, won his NewGen Men sponsorship on the basis of how he's been tracing the history of tartan, making connections through plaid, yarn and the two-way influences inherent in the tribal uses of checked pattern across continents to India and Africa. Whoever and wherever they are, Scottish designers feel that connection with home very personally. This season, Christopher Kane has come out with it more obviously than ever before. There's a Royal Stuart tartan mini-kilt in his pre-fall collection, and a sweater proudly emblazoned with the word: SCOTLAND.
Tartan may be enjoying a seasonal upswing in its trend fortunes, but for Kane and his sister Tammy (who is his co-creative director), the influence of their shared Scottish identity has always run far deeper than designing kilts. Practically everything he does in his collections goes back to his upbringing in Newarthill, not far from Motherwell, and to all the layers of experiences he and Tammy packed into their childhoods and teenage years at the local catholic Taylor High School. Usually the signals are subtly coded; perhaps a matter of shared memories of the style of a particular girl the Kanes would see around the village, of embroidered samplers from WI sales, or of the horror movies their Auntie Sandra used to let them stay up and watch while she was babysitting, or of the jewelled relics and statues they saw in the nearby Catholic grotto at Carfin. But this year, Kane has dealt full-on with the most unmistakable and ever-present aspect of Scottish heritage: the world of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
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