Battle on in Inverness to protect 'Real McCoy' Scottish-made tartan
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A QUALITY kiltmaker in Inverness said he was on track to deliver his best year in sales for nearly 20 years, despite a growing number of tartan souvenir shops opening in the city centre.
William Fraser of Highland House of Fraser said there was strong demand for the traditional kilt manufacturing methods that have been carried out for more than 50 years at his small workshop on the first floor of his prominent riverbank building.
The 70-year-old, who started out as a schoolboy washing celebrated kiltmaker Hector Russell’s rolls royce, has his heart set on expansion and hopes to take on a kiltmaking apprentice in the coming months.
He said the cheaper, factory machine-made kilts made from imported fabrics had their place, but the traditional skills of hand-stitched kiltmaking using cloth woven in Scotland’s depleting group of mills, is in demand and must not be allowed to die.
"There are other people who are at the bottom end of the market and it shows when you look in their shop windows," he said.
"We stay focussed on providing a quality service and satisfying our customers."
One of the original kilt makers
Mr Fraser was one of the "original Hector Russell chaps".
Mr Russell was an entrepreneur from Paisley whose kilt-selling empire had a major slice of the market in the city and elsewhere.
Mr Fraser devoted 40 years to the company, which at one time had 28 shops.
Mr Fraser said he decided to go into the kiltmaking trade after leaving Inverness High School – abandoning hopes to teach secondary school technical subjects when Mr Russell encouraged him to join him in the field.
He said: "Hector Russell was a bachelor who stayed at The Firs, on Dores Road. I used to go over and do his gardening and wash his rolls Royce and I remember him telling me ‘You’ve got the ability and you’ve got a good future,’ and so I went to work with him and it was a brilliant career - I loved my job and I couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings quick enough to get to work."
Mr Fraser mastered multi-departments in Hector Russell’s chain of Scotland shops, and he was in charge of opening his other kilt-selling shops in Toronto, Seattle and San Francisco.
Mr Russell died in 1977 at the age of 77 and Mr Fraser retired at 55.
But his plan for a quieter life was railroaded when he agreed to buy Hector Russell House on Huntly Street, taking over the business and manufacturing side of the company.
He renamed the firm Highland House of Fraser, which he runs with his wife Shona and their daughter Pauline, general manager.
Broad product line
Mr Fraser's product line includes hand-sewn kilts made on the premises and machine stitched kilts made elsewhere, which are sold for lower prices.
He said: "I would always say that we target the mid-to-upper end of the market but every shop has to have products that people want to take home at an affordable price, so we cover a range of budgets with quality merchandise."
His kiltmaking workshop in the Huntly Street premises gives visitors the chance to watch traditionally kiltmaking.
His team includes staff from France, Spain, Italy and Romania, and his kiltmakers are trained under the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Mr Fraser added: "We are forging ahead and increasing out turnover because of what we do."
Heritage at risk
The managing director of an independent Scottish textiles firm which produced tartan accessories for the TV series Outlander has warned cheap tartan imports and “pop-up shops selling tartan tat” are posing a threat to Scotland’s traditional woollen mills.
Colin Brown, from leading-edge Glasgow-based Ingles Buchan, which operates a mill in Selkirk, said the number of mills had dropped from around 40 to 10 in recent years because machine-made tartan products were being shipped in to warehouse-style shops selling budget price products undercutting the traditional kiltmakers whose garments were hand-sewn by trained kiltmakers on their premises from cloth weaved in Scotland.
Mr Brown is vice-chairman of the Scottish Tartan Authority, which aims to set up a new labelling system by next summer.
This Tartan Mark would give a gold standard to quality Scottish hand-made kilts and tartan product.
There is currently no legal obligation to label garments with country of origin.
In theory, the Tartan Mark would give tartan products made by reputable textile companies in Scotland, or even Great Britain, a swing ticket and a Made in Scotland or Great Britain logo.
Mr Brown, who is also MD of Selkirk-based Anthony Haines Textiles, said: “We are trying to educate the tourists.
“They may think a kilt costing £20 is a good deal – but it is a good deal for a good reason.
“If you put a match to them they’d go up in minutes.”
Mr Brown said the problem was exacerbated by the fact that many tourists did not realise the tartan they had purchased at a cheaper price had not been made in Scotland.
He added: “There’s nothing to stop people from buying that type of product, and there is a market for it, but the issue – and it’s not just in Inverness we are seeing this – is that those shops selling tartan tat are popping up, and then come to the end of the tourist season, they just disappear leaving empty units on the High Street.”
