Harris Tweed Kilts
Tweed is a perfectly traditional cloth choice for a kilt, and was quite popular in the nineteenth century, when we saw the rise of the estate tweed. Harris tweed has a long reputation for quality and tradition. In order to bear the famous Orb Mark and be labeled as "Harris Tweed" the cloth has to be hand-woven by the islanders at their home in the Outer Hebrides and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. To learn more about Harris tweed, you can read my article, "Feeling a Need for Tweed."
We obtain Harris Tweed cloth for my kilts from traditional croft weavers on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, who can weave small runs of custom tweed for us in solids and patterns -- including tartan.
The solid reputation of Harris Tweed as a cloth identified with both ruggedness and luxury dates back to the 1840s when Catherine Murray, the Countess of Dunmore, had the Murray tartan woven in tweed cloth by the local Harris weavers. Suits in the tweed were later made for the Dunmore estate gamekeepers and ghillies. Lady Dunmore was so taken with the cloth that she sought to find it a broader market, and by the end of the 1840s the cloth was well established in London.
Every length of cloth produced is stamped with the official Orb symbol, trademarked by the Harris Tweed Association in 1909, when Harris Tweed was defined as "hand-spun, hand-woven and dyed by the crofters and cottars in the Outer Hebrides".
Since that time, traditional Harris Tweed weavers are now allowed to use mill-spun and vat dyed yarns, but the weaving is still done in the homes and crofts on hand powered looms. The Harris Tweed brand is today protected and promoted by the Harris Tweed Authority, established by an Act of Parliament in 1993.
We have recently been priveledged to be able to work with tweed weavers on Lewis to offer you custom Harris Tweed cloth in your own tartan, or any other design of your specification.
The minimum order for any custom length of Harris Tweed is five meters. This means that we are able to supply any of our kilts in your custom woven Harris Tweed. (Four yard variety kilts will be priced the same as five yard kilts, as the same amount of cloth will need to be ordered; however, you will receive the excess cloth in addition to your kilt, generally enough to have a waistcoat made if you so desire).
Harris Tweed kilts are truly evocative of the era when the kilt was the work-a-day garment of the Gael -- hardy, durable, and quality that only comes from traditional hand crafted fabrics.
Our Harris Tweed weavers also produce cloth in the widely recognized herringbone, windowpane, and check tweed patterns so associated with the Clò Mór. We will be updating this page with images of these stock tweed patterns and colors as they become available. I am also happy to talk with you about Harris Tweed kilt jackets and waistcoats, which can be ordered through the Scottish Tartans Museum gift shop.
When you order your Harris Tweed tartan, you will be asked to specify modern, ancient, or weathered color schemes. This is to give a general indication of color preference. Please understand that part of the beauty and charm of traditional Harris Tweed are the soft color blends and natural tones; for this reason you cannot expect your custom Harris Tweed tartan to match the exact colors of the same tartan woven in typical worsted wool. We allow our weavers the artistic freedom to create your length of tartan tweed in colors and shades which reflect the Harris Tweed tradition.
>CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR CUSTOM TARTAN HARRIS TWEED KILT
Harris Tweed in tartan. Left: examples of Black Watch and ancient Grant tartans woven in Harris Tweed. Below: A four yard box pleated kilt made from MacPherson Hunting tweed.
