The Tailor & Cutter pt.2 remembered by Eric Musgrave

Author of Sharp Suits and former editorial director of Drapers , Mr. Musgrave is a writer and commentator on menswear, textiles and fashion retailing. This is the second in a series of 12 contributions featuring the fascinating finds of The Tailor & Cutter.

Selling Harris Tweed

Vintage Ads from The Tailor & Cutter

By Eric Musgrave

Lovers of traditional British fabrics will be well acquainted with the many charms of Harris Tweed, the only cloth whose quality is guaranteed by Act of Parliament. Stewart Christie can show clients a treasure trove of superb designs from the weavers on the Hebrides.

From the archives of The Tailor & Cutter , the trade paper for bespoke tailors that was published between the 1860s and 1970s, there are some fine examples of advertisements that showed that creativity in the Harris Tweed industry stretched to marketing as well as cloth.

I am particularly fond of the patchwork images devised by S A Newall and Sons of Stornoway for the front cover of the magazine. Newall, which was a spinner of woollen yarn as well as a dealer in finished Harris Tweed, existed from 1912 to around 1970, when it merged with another Stornoway firm, Thomas Smith. These charming images beautifully reflect the spirit of the islands and display the variety of the tweed itself..

On the left:   29 March 1946  
On the right:  20 January 1956

On the left:  25 January 1957
 On the right:  28 October 1960

In one of its many messages to the trade, Newall, which also dealt in Lewis and Shetland homespuns, described Harris Tweed as "The Aristocrat of Tweeds for Golf and All Sportswear". Hear hear to that.

Today, production of the Clo Mor (as Harris Tweed, the Big Cloth, is known in Gaelic) is overseen by The Harris Tweed Authority and its website is packed with information about the industry’s history, which dates back to the 1840s.

Certain mills and an earlier incarnation of the authority, The Harris Tweed Association, began promoting the cloth in the 1920s. I am particularly impressed by the sophistication of these ads that appeared 80 years ago to promote this singular Scottish product.

On the left:  7 January 1938
 On the right:  7 April 1939

Finally, almost exactly 57 years ago, John Taylor, the legendary Scottish-born editor of The Tailor & Cutter during the post-World War Two era, put together an entertaining guide for his readers, explaining the do’s and don’ts of wearing Harris Tweed. The team at Stewart Christie will be happy to continue the conversation today.

Above:  17 February 1961

Special thanks to Eric Musgrave for this fascinating piece.