Talking Threads

Exploring Scotland's textile heritage through research, storytelling and collaboration

Project Overview

Talking Threads is a collaborative research and public engagement project exploring Scotland's rich textile heritage and the stories woven into the fabrics, garments and making traditions that have shaped our cultural identity.

Developed by Scotland Re:Design in partnership with researchers, makers, cultural organisations and heritage specialists, the project brings together historical research, contemporary craft practice and public interpretation to reveal the enduring connections between fashion, textiles and Scottish communities.

Through exhibitions, creative responses and collaborative research, Talking Threads demonstrates how Scotland's textile heritage continues to inspire contemporary makers while preserving knowledge for future generations.

The Challenge

Scotland has a globally significant textile history, yet many of the stories behind the country's makers, materials and manufacturing traditions remain underrepresented or inaccessible to wider audiences.

Talking Threads set out to explore how fashion and textile heritage could be interpreted in new ways, making research more engaging and encouraging conversations between historians, makers, designers and the public.

The project asked how historical knowledge could inform contemporary practice while celebrating the people, places and skills that have shaped Scotland's creative identity.

The Research

Working collaboratively with researchers, historians, makers and partner organisations, Talking Threads explored the social, cultural and material history of Scottish textiles through archival research, creative interpretation and public engagement.

The project investigated traditional techniques, regional identities and the relationship between heritage and contemporary design, demonstrating that historical research can become a catalyst for innovation and creative practice.

By connecting academic research with lived experience and contemporary making, the project encouraged new perspectives on Scotland's fashion and textile history.

Exhibition & Public Engagement

Research formed the foundation of a public exhibition that invited visitors to explore Scotland's textile heritage through objects, interpretation, creative responses and contemporary practice.

Alongside the exhibition, Talking Threads created opportunities for dialogue between project participants and audiences, encouraging visitors to consider how fashion, craft and heritage continue to influence modern Scotland.

The exhibition demonstrated how cultural heritage can be experienced through both historical interpretation and contemporary creativity.

Project Impact

Talking Threads demonstrated the value of collaboration between heritage organisations, researchers and creative practitioners.

The project:

• Celebrated Scotland's textile heritage through public engagement.

• Connected historical research with contemporary fashion and craft.

• Created opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Encouraged conversations around heritage, identity and sustainability.

• Supported greater appreciation of Scotland's rich textile traditions.

By bringing together research and creative practice, Talking Threads reinforced SR:D’s commitment to preserving heritage while inspiring the future of Scottish fashion.

Partners & Contributors

Talking Threads was made possible through collaboration between researchers, museums, heritage organisations, designers, makers and cultural partners.

The project brought together expertise from across the heritage and creative sectors, demonstrating the value of partnership in uncovering and sharing Scotland's textile stories.

Talking Threads is about the herstories and hidden tales of Scottish music and fashion from medieval textiles and fashion to post-industrial and contemporary practices. The project is ongoing due to huge interest, and we are still collecting stories for more projects to come from this. Read on to uncover our work and share each other’s stories and send us yours.

An initial pilot exhibition as part of Scotland’s Year of Stories was hosted, suitably, in the former Coats Viyella shop from 16th to Sunday 20th November at Dundee’s Overgate Shopping Centre’s community Gather Space up on Level 1, with outlying displays within V&A Dundee in their Shop during the Scottish Fashion Festival 2022.

Coats-Viyella was a late 20th Century popular clothing brand, established from the original Coats thread business from Paisley, whose history in weaving, lace and cotton predates the famous shawls. Both still going independently, the brand’s retreat from on street premises eventually formed part of the paradigm shift in Scottish fashion and textiles which began from the 1980’s onwards. With The Herald quoting that the industry was losing 500 jobs a week in March 1999, in 2020 updated figures showed nearly 30,000 employed in the Scottish sector, with a whole army of freelancers and sole traders on top of that, contributing more than £2.8 billion to the economy (Fashion Roundtable/ONS).

The exhibition strand was supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund was being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players.

Talking Threads

Hidden Tales of Scotland’s Fashion & Music

Initially curated by SR:D as part of the Year of Stories 2022, the Talking Threads exhibition looked for hidden stories and musical connections behind textile working practices, in a sector which has always mainly featured women workers. We connected threads between women working to produce Scotland’s historic fashions and textiles, through the soundtrack of the pre-industrial era, and the post-1960s to 90s, up to current playlists for Scotland’s contemporary design studios.

Scotland has an incredibly rich textile and fashion history, recognised and celebrated the world over by designers, customers and creators, especially from those choosing to live and work in Scotland.

In a big shift from the exodus of the 90s and 2000s to London and beyond, the industry is now attracting people in and is worth over £2.8billion a year to the Scottish economy. It features an array of talent ranging from designers and manufacturers to international models, make-up artists, producers, museums, shops and photographers.

SRD’s exhibition showcased initial research that discovered key stories from across these three major musical eras of Scottish traditional craft textiles and fashion practices for new audiences. Weaving these story threads together to produce a rich tapestry demonstrating what people's lives were really like, the music they listened to, the work they did and how each made an impact on society.

Stories from each era guide us through a historical journey with consideration of the tools that were used and the kinds of fashion and textiles that were produced. We also explored the people behind the fabrics, especially by hearing stories from those involved in production and learning who they were making the clothing for.

What we found in our research for this project is that almost anyone you ask can cite a link to the Scottish textile industry at least once across the three eras we have identified. We are really keen to continue this project, so please do get in touch if you have a story you would like to share. This initial exhibition was just the start of something. Stay tuned to see where the thread weaves next.

This event has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

Did you, or someone you know, work in a Scottish Mill or Factory? We would love to hear from you and to build on our picture of the industrY.

Please contact us now with your tales and recollections, photos or videos about your experiences from Timex to crafts, shops, factories and studios.

PRE-INDUSTRIAL GROUP WORK & Handmaking

While it is impossible to determine exactly when humans began wearing clothing, we can track back historical fashions over several thousand years. Up until the 1700’s, when the first mill was built in Scotland, to be exact, every garment would have been made entirely by hand. Every item of clothing would have been a treasured possession, taken care of and often repaired again and again.

Going back to the earliest examples of garments we know of, they would have been made by and for individual families, and mostly by women. Even at this stage clothing would have had an element of self-expression, often including embellishments and decoration. Moving through to the collaborative efforts of the weavers and knitters in the Scottish Highlands and islands, textiles would have been about community and socialising. In the Hebrides women famously would have gathered to wash their woven fabrics and sang ‘waulking songs’ together as they worked.

Waulking songs continued to be sung by women in some parts of Scotland right up until the 1960’s. Their popularity has secured Scotland as one of the richest gold stores of traditional music in Western Europe. Interestingly, despite having languages formed from the same roots, and a similar history around skilled tweed workers, the Irish have never sung waulking songs. The only other place in the world where they are sung is Nova Scotia, in Canada - no point for connecting the dots there. A key difference between the countries were that In Scotland you’d only expect to see women singing the songs, using their hands to keep the beat, whereas across in Canada you’d also find them sung by men, who used their feet. 

The most iconic of Scottish textiles is tartan; a kilt being a symbol of Scotland the world over. These modern terms are, of course, not native to Scotland, those came later, and were introduced by our neighbours to the South. Ancient Scots would have worn and carried a ‘plaid’. Despite the modern proclivity to link particular colours to family names, the variations in plaid colours would have been linked to the land rather than the man. The materials and dyes available would have all been natural, with dyes made from whatever plant matter was locally available. The plaid was an item used for warmth like a blanket, as well as worn in all weathers, or for carrying items over a shoulder like a bag.

In order to make a garment, our forebears would have had to go through a series of processes, first gathering fibres from plants or animals, turn those materials into yarns using combs and carders, and then weave those yarns into fabric using stone weighted spindles. Doing each stage by hand, with primitive tools, would have taken extensive amounts of time, so it’s no wonder those items were well taken care of.

From cottage industries to mercantilism where exchange was starting to grow and fabrics would be traded from one area to another, developing international links with India and so on over time. The export of fabric continued to expand as we built an international name for textiles.

POST-Industrial COMMUNITIES & CHANGE

As the industrial revolution washed over Scotland, the rise of mills and factories as people left the countryside is what created many of our towns and cities as we know them today, or more accurately - as they were in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, through the World Wars differently as factories were turned to war effort, and until the 1980’s. From the world-famous Coats factories in Paisley, the Calton weavers in Lanarkshire, and the Singer sewing machine factory in Clydebank, to name but a few. The development of new technologies was phenomenal and bled across into other industries too. Did you know the first ever computer programmer was a weaver? Ada Lovelace used the technology from a weaving card to create the first ever algorithm.

The first inventions which increased the speed of fabric production included the spinning jenny, a multi- spindle spinning frame, one of the key developments in the industrialisation of textile manufacturing. And the flying shuttle reduced the amount of manual manoeuvring required by workers. This later developed into using the power of water to run huge mechanical looms. With the arrival of electricity, sewing machines and modern textile technology meant the processes could be automated to some extent, making it much safer, and much faster to produce fabric and clothing. The very first water powered mills required children to work as they were small enough to fit between the machines to untangle and repair any faults. The growth of the textile industry also opened opportunities for women to enter paid employment, albeit often at lower rates of pay than their male counterparts.

As demand for garments grew, increasing pressure was put on the workers, whose conditions were often very poor. This led to the first major industrial action in Scotland’s history, the Calton weavers’ strike in 1787. Celebrated as working-class martyrs, whose strike achieved fundamental changes between workers and employers, the Calton weavers’ have been immortalised in a painting by Glasgow artist Ken Currie to mark the 200th anniversary of the event. In the decades to follow many more mill workers staged strikes to fight for better working conditions and pay. An 1820 strike by Paisley textile workers was combined as part of the continuing movement for the right to vote. In Dundee there was a 1912 Jute strike, part of a wave of strikes across the whole United Kingdom, with workers demanding ‘We will never be content, ‘til we get our ten percent.’

Around the same time as the Dundee strike, Mary Brooksbank wrote the most famous of her many mill songs. These songs were sympathetic to the struggles of her mill co-workers, who were mostly women. Hardworking, low paid, yet highly skilled women kept their positions on so they could feed their children. In her famous ‘Jute Mill Song’, Brooksbank also shared the inner workings of a day on the ‘flett’ (flat, or mill floor). Shiftin, piecing, and spinning were the main daily tasks, which contributed to making the Jute.

A historical gem in Scotland’s textile story is New Lanark Mill. While other mill owners were putting profit before the welfare of their workers, Robert Owen tried to buck the trend by ensuring that working conditions were reasonable and that children of families had access to education.

The industry began to falter in the late 20th century. When manufacturing started to be moved over to India and other countries, where it was much cheaper to produce fabrics, jobs dried up and mills began to close their doors. More recently in 1981 workers from Lee Jeans staged a sit in, which actually prevented the factory in Greenock from closing for some while at least. Their success recently celebrated its 40’s anniversary with a BBC documentary which chronicled stories of many of the women who worked there. 

The music that was charting at the time of the sit in was quite apt for the mood of it all. Coming of the back of the punk movement, with bands who rejected the mainstream, were often political, and embraced DIY efforts to release music. In particular, the people we spoke to associate the likes of the Clash and Madness during the time that the women occupied the factory. Dundee had a similar story with Timex - another fashion accessory stripped and sent abroad for profit, and it’s no huge surprise to hear that disco moved to punk and rock for many.

Throughout the industrial era the manufacturing of clothing drastically changed, being produced at increasing speeds with consumers encouraged to buy more and more. This attitude to clothing stands in marked contrast to the value placed on hand made clothing of the pre-industrial era, or to the current days. Individual expression became intertwined with trends, with pressure on consumers to have the latest fashions, as documented by Naomi Klein in her book No Logo. In the 1980s de-industrialisation was a national strategy under the Thatcher Government in the UK, and the textiles industry was one of the most devastated at this time. The song Letter from America captures this period of devastation in Scotland, becoming a chart hit in 1987 and lamenting this most recent wave of economic migration from Scotland.

Contemporary SHARED STUDIO practice & HANDMAKING

As the fashion and textile industry has developed into the 21st century, it has followed divergent paths. Trends associated with globalisation, including industry relocating to sites where labour is cheaper, and an ever-quickening trends cycle had already led to mass, often over-production. This has meant that clothing has become disposable to many, and therefore detrimental to the environment. This mass produced ‘fast fashion’ is still a feature of our high streets. However, consumers are also questioning ‘who made my clothes?’ and asking for transparency about working conditions in the factories. During the COP26 conference last year in Glasgow, attention was brought to the textile industry and its impact on the environment.

Given these concerns, more and more designers are choosing slow fashion, made for local customers, with sustainable practices at the heart of their ethos. Our research engaged a wealth of Scottish designers, factories and mills, who are at the centre of what SR:D is all about, and connecting them with audiences. There is an exciting and hopeful resurgence of interest in traditional artisanal techniques, in mending and repairing, and in preserving our heritage.

We celebrate the wonderful mills that have survived right through to today, some of which still produce garments and textiles using traditional methods, and have developed new techniques and designer partnerships for collections, many of which feature in the Scottish Fashion Festival, and other Scotland Re:Design showcases and runways. Despite the change, the quality waxed cloth, tartan, cashmere, tweed and lace which Scotland is famed for, are still very much in demand. Let’s consider exciting examples of thriving textile companies with long histories in Scotland. 

Halley Stevensons are based right in the centre of Dundee, working with the waxed cottons beloved of sailors arriving to Scotland since the 15th century, as a factory it began life in its current form in the 1800’s, retains over 150 years of experience within its team, and makes for all kinds of customers within fashion and textiles.

MYB Lace in Ayrshire have been producing their beautiful lace madras since the 1900’s. They are now not only the last remaining Lace mill in Scotland, but the only mill of their kind in the world. Their fabrics remain in high demand to this day.

Johnstons of Elgin have been trading since 1797 and were industry leaders for wool production by 1810. Featured in the famous great exhibition of 1851, their pioneering cashmere weaving has won medals, and is still a mainstay of the company today.

Harris Tweed, that centuries old key aspect of the heritage of the Scottish islands, was such a unique commodity that it has been under parliamentary protection since 1933. It’s the only fabric in the world to have this sort of protection. The protection was bolstered again in 1993 with the Harris Tweed Act, which sought to promote and maintain authenticity, standards, and reputation.

We have highlighted the unique and strong connections between the Scottish textile industry and Scottish music, which have been intertwined for centuries. The waulking songs, associated with the tweed industry in particular, up until the 1960s, have remained popular, and currently feature in the sets of most Gaelic and traditional singers. Gaelic singer Eilidh Mackenzie/Barker tells us: “Textiles and tweed are such a close pairing, which together give us a unique insight into and connection with Scotland’s rich cultural history.”

This close pairing was also evident in the conversations we had with contemporary designers. Music is an important aspect of the practice of how they run their studios today. They each use different kinds of music to inspire and drive their work, creating digital playlists to inspire new ideas, boost productivity and when designing a new collection.