Spinning the Ephemeral PDF - SMU Fashion Media

292 Fiona Anderson
orange, provided subtle surface interest, rather than a stridently colored
cloth overall (Gulvin 1973: 76). Also, the description of the Cheviots as
"mostly plain" suggests that they were primarily intended to be wotn in
urban settings.
These references to the Scottish landscape might be seen panly as sales
talk that had an imaginative resonance, within the textiles and tailoring
trades and ultimately with male consumers. It also refers to a measure of
genuine influence of rural landscapes and contexts on tweed designs. For
example, the predominant account given for the development of many
tweed designs is that they evolved from the black-and-white plaids worn
by shepherds in the Scottish Borders (Ponting 1987: 78-80). In particular
that simple design in a twill weave has been seen as the basis for a group
of tweeds known as estate tweeds, or by the alternative name of district
checks. These tweeds first developed in the 1840s linked to the desires of
landowners to create a specific identity for their estate. One of the earliest
estate tweeds was the Clenurquart, which was adopted by Caroline,
Countess of Seafield on her estates from the 1840s onwards. This black
and white check with the addition of a blue or red over check has widely
and erroneously been known as the Prince of Wales check. It is one of
the few seminal textile patterns that have remained popular in men's and
women's clothing since the nineteenth century. The Glenurquart, like
many of the estate tweeds, has constantly been adapted by manufacturers
to form either new estate tweeds or commercially available designs
(Harrison 1968, 1995).
The emergence of estate tweeds was intrinsically linked to major
economic and social changes within the Scottish Highlands. By the late
nineteenth century the Highlands of Scotland had largely been converted
into a series of private sporting estates and a minority of local people had
taken on new occupations as ghillies, keepers, stalkers, and pony-men,
outdoor servants who had skills and knowledge about the local terrain
and animal life that was essential to those who wanted to partake in sports
such as deer-stalking, grouse shooting, and salmon fishing (Dossena 2000;
Mackenzie 1998: 28). Several landowners thought it necessary to create
a livery for these servants, one that was distinctive enough to signal their
connection to a specific tract of private land but that also provided a
degree of protection both from the elements and also the watchful eyes
of animals who were to be stalked as prey. Stiliie notes the connections
with romantic perceptions of the previous clan system whereby:
many of the new landowners and tenants did not have claim to a
tartan but wished some distinctive garb for themselves and their
estate workers. It was in this environment that the cloths which later
became known as the District checks developed; the name tends to
be misleading as the cloths were attached to some estate., organization
or regiment rather than a district (Stiliie 1970: 328).