Scottish cashmere has been a major building block in Chanel's architecture for years. This evening the label, more usually at home on the catwalks of Paris, acknowledged its debt by staging a show at Linlithgow Castle, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.
It's fair to say the prospect of an international happening, complete with hopelessly overdressed, under-insulated fashion editors and starlets has been a source of considerable entertainment in Scotland, where Edinburgh University's annual clothes show is normally the highlight of the fashion season.
Chanel's account with Scotland is well on its way to being settled in full. In August, it rescued Barrie knitwear, the factory in Hawick, which produced many of its famous twin sets for a quarter of a century, from closure.
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Dawson's, the holding group that owned Barrie - and before its demise, the Pringle factory down the road - had run into financial difficulty. Shares had plunged, administrators been called in and letters sent out to customers. Luckily, one of those customers had deep pockets and a strong affection for the craftswoman (it mainly is womenship at Barrie). It is thought that Chanel paid £9.7 million for the Barry factory, saving 180 jobs in the process and ensuring that the painstaking processes Barrie uses to make its world-beating knitwear, much of it finished by hand, will still be available to Chanel - and to the many other designers that use it.
READ: Chanel saves Scottish knitwear jobs
The acquisition is the latest in Chanel's mission to save endangered skills. It now owns ten artisanal workshops and factories, including the Lesage embroidery in France - the fruits of which are displayed every year in the label's Metiers d'Art (literally art professions) collection.
Nor is Chanel's love affair with Scotland a recent fling. One of the two loves of its founder Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel's life was the Duke of Westminster, with whom she frequently travelled to Scotland - redecorating Rosehall, his Georgian Scottish mansion, in her signature beiges, and establishing a lifelong admiration for tweeds and knitwear, which were to become the pillars of le look Chanel.
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Both were spectacularly in evidence on the catwalk (the tweeds from Linton mills in Carlisle). Festooned with jewels and tartan - and plenty of cashmere. The front row looked on with more than the usual covetousness. Linlithgow is a beautiful but roofless ruin - and it was minus three and snowing.
Scottish cashmere has been a major building block in Chanel's architecture for years. This evening the label, more usually at home on the catwalks of Paris, acknowledged its debt by staging a show at Linlithgow Castle, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.
It's fair to say the prospect of an international happening, complete with hopelessly overdressed, under-insulated fashion editors and starlets has been a source of considerable entertainment in Scotland, where Edinburgh University's annual clothes show is normally the highlight of the fashion season.
Chanel's account with Scotland is well on its way to being settled in full. In August, it rescued Barrie knitwear, the factory in Hawick, which produced many of its famous twin sets for a quarter of a century, from closure.
Dawson's, the holding group that owned Barrie - and before its demise, the Pringle factory down the road - had run into financial difficulty. Shares had plunged, administrators been called in and letters sent out to customers. Luckily, one of those customers had deep pockets and a strong affection for the craftswoman (it mainly is womenship at Barrie). It is thought that Chanel paid £9.7 million for the Barry factory, saving 180 jobs in the process and ensuring that the painstaking processes Barrie uses to make its world-beating knitwear, much of it finished by hand, will still be available to Chanel - and to the many other designers that use it.
The acquisition is the latest in Chanel's mission to save endangered skills. It now owns ten artisanal workshops and factories, including the Lesage embroidery in France - the fruits of which are displayed every year in the label's Metiers d'Art (literally art professions) collection.
Nor is Chanel's love affair with Scotland a recent fling. One of the two loves of its founder Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel's life was the Duke of Westminster, with whom she frequently travelled to Scotland - redecorating Rosehall, his Georgian Scottish mansion, in her signature beiges, and establishing a lifelong admiration for tweeds and knitwear, which were to become the pillars of le look Chanel.
READ: The story behind Chanel's love affair with Scotland
Both were spectacularly in evidence on the catwalk (the tweeds from Linton mills in Carlisle). Festooned with jewels and tartan - and plenty of cashmere. The front row looked on with more than the usual covetousness. Linlithgow is a beautiful but roofless ruin - and it was minus three and snowing.
Via: Scotland hosts Chanel's annual Mtiers d'Art show
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