Toadstools and Mushrooms Hoop

The Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides is renowned for its wonderful scenery - bleak mountains and rugged coastlines where you’ll find some of the most beautiful (and mainly deserted) beaches in the world. The colours are spectacular, vibrant blues reflecting the skies and sea, golden gorse, white sand and the golds and greens of the moors where the purple heather and an abundance of wildflowers dance in the wind, along with lustrous red poppies, soft pinks of the clover and the almost luminous yellow of the buttercups. All these shades are present in the eponymous fabric - Harris Tweed, the island’s most famous export.

Harris tweed has been woven for centuries, renowned locally for both its beauty and its hardwearing qualities, but didn’t travel much further afield until, nearly 180 years ago, it was launched into the wider world by Lady Dunmore, widow of the landowner of Harris, the Earl of Dunmore. She had the clan tartan replicated by the Harris weavers in tweed. This proved to be so successful that she began marketing the fabric to her wealthy friends further afield and quickly established Harris Tweed with textile merchants across the country.

In 1909 the Harris Tweed Association was formed to ensure that the fabric couldn’t be imitated or inferior versions produced by other manufacturers. It devised the now famous Orb trademark that appears on every single Harris Tweed item to prove that it is made from genuine Harris Tweed. Nearly a century later, in 1993, an Act of Parliament ensured that no other fabric could call itself Harris Tweed and brought into being the Harris Tweed Authority, replacing the earlier Association, and becoming the new “Guardians of the Orb.”

The Act decrees that in order for a fabric to call itself Harris Tweed, it must be “Handwoven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides.” The Harris Tweed Authority monitors all the fabric being produced on a daily basis and every 50 metres of fabric is inspected and approved before being stamped by hand with the orb trademark.