This year we partnered with Moncole magazine to identify top makers in the UK. View their maker.me profiles on the Makers Monday website.
When it comes to Scottish textiles, they don’t come much more prestigious than Begg & Co, the maker of the famous paisley shawl in the 1860s. Jacquard weaving in the finest cashmere is a speciality and the people who have the skills to do it are as important to the company as the sourcing of raw materials.
Q&A WITH DAVID WOODHOUSE, HEAD OF PRODUCTION
Let’s start from the beginning: how do you make what you make?
We weave all our products in air [yarns unrolling high over the machines]. Weaving, in its simplest terms, is the assembly of weft yarns over warp yarns – but there is a lot more to it than that. The skill of weavers and technicians, extending back over decades, is very important to the products we make as we have a much more complicated weave structure than many of our competitors. That requires a high level of technical skill on the part of our technicians. One of our technicians has been with us for 42 years and it’s that kind of continuity of experience that allows us to fine-tune the process at a standard that is top tier.
How do you source your materials?
I fly to Yinchuan in China regularly and go out to the remote growing region of Alachan, which is the key area for the rearing of pure-white cashmere goats. We call their natural hair “white for white”, so with no dyeing whatsoever we can use it for a white product.
Has it been a concerted effort on Begg’s part to harness skills locally, or was it the case that you never lost them?
We tend to have a very low turnover of labour and are regarded as a very good employer; the type of business that people want to be involved in. We probably lose just one employee in an average year out of 120. We look after people and provide a pleasant environment to work in. These are no satanic mills, this is a modern, well-kept plant.
If we stick to that theme of provenance, how central to your brand is the fact of where you are from?
In the past couple of years there has been an incredibly strong draw back to UK manufacturing in the world of cashmere, specifically to Scottish manufacturing. And Scotland has a great history of cashmere manufacturing, particularly for knitwear, and we tap into that. We use that notoriety as a traditional producer while being able to add a modern twist in terms of design and innovation.