There is none finer.
Visit the rugged island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides off Scotland’s west coast and you will find that the cottage industry which produces the local Harris Tweed is alive and well.
I did so in the fall of 1977, a last UK trip before leaving that blighted nation for the welcoming surrounds of America, and was lucky to photograph the last of the local artisans who not only wove the rugged woolen tweed on a hand loom, but also span her own yarn by hand using wool from the local sheep population.
Marion Campbell spinning Harris Tweed yarn, Harris, Scotland. Leica M3, 35mm Summicron, TriX.
You can read the whole story here.
A typical Harris cottage. Someone is cleaning up on Harris Tweed sales, but it’s not the makers.
Ms. Campbell told me that her largest customer was a tailor’s in Hong Kong, so 19 years later, on a business trip to that most vibrant of places, I made the pilgrimage on a 25 cent ferry ride from HK to Kowloon on the mainland to visit the storied tailor who made his home in the Peninsula Hotel. The ferry and Kowloon are still the most crowded places I can recall, though it was nice being one foot taller than everyone else ….
The Peninsula continues to this day but B. Clemo has long shut its doors. The business was renowned for custom tailored clothing and that old story that you would be measured one day and the clothes would be ready the next proved to be true. I ordered a tailored Harris Tweed jacket, choosing from the immense selection of tweed cloths and I like to think that Marion’s output was among the choices available.
In B. Clemo’s store, a friend contemplates the cornucopia of Tweed choices.
With the lining recently restitched, my jacket is as good as new some 29 years later.
Tailored cuffs can be unbuttoned for a touch of style.
The real thing.
With a friend the other day
A couple of years later, affluence having reared its welcome head, I contacted B. Clemo and ordered a second jacket. Sure enough they had my measurements on file and it fit as perfectly as the first. That one is in the last picture above.
Put on a (Scottish!) wool pullover under your Harris Tweed jacket and you will not feel the cold down to freezing. The Scots know wool. And you can order a tailored jacket from the Harris Tweed Authority to this day, but you will pay a good deal more than I did almost 30 years ago.
