The History Of The Harris Tweed
Trademark
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By the end of the 19th Century, lesser quality tweed
fabrics, exploiting the niche created by Harris Tweed and marketed as
Harris Tweed, began to appear in the merchant’s warehouses. These
‘shoddy’ cloths, often woven with machine spun yarn from mills as far
south as Yorkshire, began to undermine the markets confidence in genuine
Harris Tweed.
In 1906 the Harris Tweed Association was formed with the
purpose of establishing a trademark to protect the authentic Harris Tweed
industry and the livelihoods of the crofters in the Western Isles.
Lengthy consultation concluded with the Harris Tweed
Association publishing the following definition for genuine Harris Tweed.
“Harris Tweed means a tweed, hand-spun, hand-woven and
dyed by the crofters and cottars in the Outer Hebrides."
The Harris Tweed definition was registered in 1910 and
inspectors were employed by the Association to authenticate and stamp,
with the registered trademark, all genuine Harris Tweed. The mark
consisted of an orb with a Maltese cross on the top of it, with the words
Harris Tweed underneath the symbol.
The years following the First World War were prolific
for Harris Tweed. To meet the huge demand for the handmade fabric and with
hand finishing falling from fashion, tweed producers began to supply
machine spun yarn to the crofters and it was not uncommon for tweed to be
sent to the mainland for finishing.
In 1934, after much debate, the trademarked definition
of genuine Harris Tweed was amended to read,
“Harris Tweed means a tweed made from pure virgin wool
produced in Scotland, spun, dyed and finished in Outer Hebrides and
hand-woven by the islanders at their own homes in the Islands of Lewis,
Harris, Uist, Barra and their several purtenances and all known as the
Outer Hebrides.”
Thirty years later in 1964, following a dispute between
textile manufacturers on the Scottish mainland and producers in the
Western Isles of Scotland, a Court of Session ruling re-enforced the 1934
definition of Harris Tweed and made it quite clear that for tweed to be
genuine Harris Tweed, all production processes must take place in the
Western Isles.
In 1993 an act of parliament, the Harris Tweed Act 1993,
established the Harris Tweed Authority as the successor to the Harris Tweed
Association, its purpose being “to promote and maintain the
authenticity, standard and reputation of Harris Tweed; for preventing the
sale as Harris Tweed of material which does not fall within the
definition...”
And with this act the following definition of genuine
Harris Tweed became statutory.
“Harris Tweed means a tweed which has been hand woven
by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the
islands of Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra and
their several purtenances (The Outer Hebrides) and made from pure virgin
wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides.”
Today, every 50 metres of genuine Harris Tweed are
checked by an inspector from the Harris Tweed Authority before being
stamped, by hand, with the orb symbol. All tweed men’s jackets made from
genuine Harris Tweed carry the orb trademark along with a number that
enables the Harris Tweed Authority to identify the weaver of the fabric
and the date the fabric was finished.
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