"Harassed Tweed" - Documentary

[Hexenmeister]

A few months ago I was perusing about Vimeo and came upon a three-part documentary series called "Harassed Tweed." It details the rise of tweed, it's fall from popular style, and the controversy surrounding its definition and very existence. It's a fascinating story, really!

Episode 1 - http://vimeo.com/7505746

Episode 2 (Part 1/2) - http://vimeo.com/15901604

Episode 2 (Part 2/2) - http://vimeo.com/16073270

Episode 3 - http://vimeo.com/7669212

 

[Tenorclef]

Many thanks for the links, wanted to see these for ages.

 

[BoDiddly]

Thank you for the link. Wow. My admiration of tweed continues to rise.


I expect this is all old news for those you on the other side of the pond - but I've always seen tweed as something that clothing manufacturers need to treat like micro-breweries. First off - understand that the big clothing guys (like the big beer guys) don't get it - they simply do not understand why the product is desired. Second off - don't mess with it. Don't try to turn production into a mass-produced bland beer, or very plain looking tweed. And thirdly, find a way to keep the niche, it will always be there, but maintain the high quality, and success will follow (maybe not always, but in 1985 if you wanted anything other than crappy American beer throughout the U.S., you were really stuck with few choices. We now have most U.S. supermarkets sporting a section called 'micro-brew' beer. I tend to think of it as a label that says "actual beer", vs. "complete garbage". **)

How to make it work - well, at least Haggas proved the opposite, that if you take a successful micro-brewery and change the recipe so it turns out Budweiser, the audience of the micro brew is lost. ('cept instead of beer he did it with Harris tweed - and fails.)


Here's to hoping the future of tweed is bright, and available throughout the world in a little section of the clothing store 'micro-labels'. Cheers.

**Note that Guinness, Harp and Bass are usually in the micro-brew section.

 

[Mario]

Thanks for the link.

That Haggas fellow really makes me want to give him a good slapping...

 

[Ny Björn]

-Thank you indeed!
I traveled the Western Isles some 10 years ago, but alas, due to lack of space I was unable to bring any tweed with me back.

/Ny Björn