It's been a long time since my last trip to Edinburgh, and I'll be getting to know it anew next month. One of the many highlights our Theatre for a New Audience group tour will be having a private kilt making demonstration and hearing about the heritage and history of some of the world's most famous Scottish textiles suppliers including Harris Tweed. The article below features some modern makers of Scotland's exciting and ever-evolving capital city.
Article below from 6/20/2023 by Chadner Navarro can found here.
Designers in Scotland’s capital take a turn from tartans and tweeds.
There might not be a more enduring European skyline than Edinburgh’s. Gray-brick, age-worn buildings evoke a certain heritage, with some structures – such as the Hub at the foot of the city’s castle – shooting into the sky in pointy defiance of modernity. Edinburgh’s architectural language is fiercely medieval, and that’s part of its allure; travelers flock to the Scottish capital to soak in this atmosphere, visit castles, take ghost tours, and drink Scotch. However, the 2021 completion of the glistening and controversial Saint James Quarter – a swirling, bronze-colored, mixed-use pile by London firm Jestico + Whiles – shook up the city’s visual identity.
It’s been a widely debated upheaval, with many locals nicknaming the building “the Turd” due to its form and color. Thankfully, that hot take has been changing. Hugo Macdonald, an Edinburgh native who, along with his partner, James Stevens, recently opened Bard, a design and craft shop in the creative enclave of Leith, notes that much of the initial uproar has since morphed into something resembling pride. “It says much about the Scots’ defiance, however, that although people still like to hate it, they already speak quite fondly about it,” he says.
This questionably shaped building aside, across the country there’s a dynamic movement to reinvigorate the Scottish design scene. Scots have always been steadfastly patriotic, and Macdonald suggests that this push to reestablish a national creative identity that goes beyond overused ideas around tartan, kilts, and heavy tweeds could be tied to timely conversations about independence. “Naturally, that sharpens the focus of questioning who we are,” he says. “What is our unique cultural identity?”
When buying for Bard, Macdonald tells me as I browse a table of ceramics, he and Stevens look for products that speak to the question of “What is Scottishness?” Their answer displays breadth and depth over two floors of wares from 40 different makers, designers, and manufacturers spanning the country.
There’s plenty of the expected here: cozy wool sweaters in bright primary colors created by one of the last remaining knitwear makers on Shetland, and handmade leather place mats by McRostie Leather, a Scottish brand that dates to 1887. Some of the shop’s most striking works, though, don’t come with quite that pedigree. I’m immediately drawn to the shiny purple vessels by Wobbly Digital, a Glasgow-based studio founded by Korean artist and Scottish resident Soorin Shin. Fashioned out of recycled plastic, her 3D-printed pieces come in a variety of whimsical forms. In addition to voluptuous vases, Bard also sells Shin’s mirrors, made to look like the sun with rays shooting out of it, and an all-yellow objet d’art of a toad gazing up at the moon. Looking at and touching these joyous pieces, it’s hard to understand how they might address the idea of Scottishness – but according to Shin, they reflect the country’s relationship to its natural surroundings. “Scottishness is knowing how to face and treat nature,” she says.
One of the best spots to see how “the Turd” fits into the Edinburgh skyline (or not) is Calton Hill, the mini mountain in the middle of the city. And there it is, a shimmering brown swirl surrounded by spires, columns, oxidized domes, and timeworn brick buildings. It’s a shock, to be sure. The hill, however, is also home to the City Observatory, a former astronomical building that’s been occupied by the art gallery Collective since 2013. In addition to staging avant-garde and interactive exhibitions, Collective also curates a great shop with made-in-Scotland merch. Two of its most creative products: fragrances by Glasgow-based artist Clara Ursitti, inspired by the East of Scotland Car Club’s prized vehicles, and Katy West’s cork-topped, bone-china import jars inspired by the trade that historically pulled into the Port of Leith, which is visible from the hill.
To delve deeper into Scottish design, I meet up with Christopher Sleigh, creative director of Sleigh’s, which works with Virtuoso advisors to create custom itineraries for travelers throughout the UK and Ireland. “Through the recent resurgence, there are some wonderful opportunities to gain a glimpse into the creative heart of the Scottish people,” he says, as we make our way to self-taught textile designer Araminta Campbell, who recently relocated her atelier to an 1822 farmhouse 20 minutes northwest of the city center. In truth, the place looks more like a small castle. What farmhouse needs watchtowers?
Its imposing exterior gives way to warmth when we step inside, and I hear the click-clack of what I later learn is a vintage loom weaving someone’s family-heirloom-to-be. By-appointment visits include a brief introduction to handweaving and how Campbell and her team source materials. The price tags give me pause, but then again, an elegant, one-of-a-kind scarf handwoven from 100 percent British alpaca ($1,445) is a genuine extension of age-old Scottish craft you’ll never find in High Street shops.
Campbell knows her niche craft is slowly disappearing and is planning to launch an apprenticeship program for young creatives with an aptitude for weaving. “We’re not only focused on producing beautiful products,” she says, “but on keeping traditional skills alive and relevant.”
On the other end of the spectrum, contemporary menswear designer Kestin Hare is building a reputation with his brand, Kestin. Hare’s new shop in the trendy Stockbridge neighborhood is a showcase for stylish gansey-knit fisherman sweaters, wool-fleece jackets, and wear-with-everything pleated corduroy chinos. A quick scan of the space reveals looks I might find in Paris or Brooklyn boutiques. But when I join Hare later in his Leith studio, he explains that his Scottish references are subtle but intentional. For instance, a collection he’s working on is built around family trips to the east coast fishing town of Port Seton and Cockenzie and the artist John Bellany’s paintings of it.
Hare has produced shirts and shirt jackets in the same shades – oranges, yellows, and terra-cottas – as the buildings in Bellany’s works, while the pastel mints and pale blues used for the sky and the sea’s royal blue and deep navy show up in chore jackets and wide-wale corduroy shirts. Textiles are also rope-dyed before being turned into shirts, to give them unique patterns and reinforce the collection’s nautical theme. “We like to pull out references from art, music, culture, architecture,” Hare says. “Some of them are more well known than others, but it always comes back to our roots in Scotland.”
After my visit to the Kestin HQ, I make my way back to its Stockbridge storefront. The shop also carries a handful of giftable items by third-party creatives, such as rough-hewn ceramic espresso cups by Cara Guthrie, who’s based just south of the city, as well as candles made in collaboration with Jorum Studio, a perfumery around the corner. But my pick is a warm, cozy Shetland sweater in classic charcoal – a comforting piece to bring home the best of old and new Scotland.
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