Fasanta festival shows it’s bang on trend

DUNOLLIE’S fourth annual Fasanta textile festival and fashion show adorned Oban with trendy tweed, castle chic and a new Firth of Lorn scarf.

The Fasanta festival, named after the Gaelic for ‘fashionable’, explores and celebrates Scotland’s textile heritage and was inspired by Dunollie House’s incredible collection of 200 costumes and textiles dating back four centuries, unearthed in 2011.

The three- day festival, running from Friday to Sunday, October 21-23, featured stalls, workshops, presentations and a catwalk in Oban’s Corran Halls and guided tours of Dunollie’s historic costumes.

Dunollie organised a primary school project where 100 pupils designed an outfit for a character who might live in Dunollie Castle, such as jesters, knights and cooks. The three winning drawings, by Lucas McLeod, Edie Elliott and Emma Woodcock, were made into outfits and modelled at the fashion show.

The show also displayed the first weave of the new Lorn Tweed.

Dunollie held an open design competition in 2015 to develop a textile inspired by the Brooch of Lorn.

The winning design by local artist Jennifer Shaw has now inspired a scarf, made by Oban weaver Marilyn Drummond, which will be known as the Firth of Lorn scarf and woven by the Dunollie Weavers’ Group. The pattern will then be developed into a Firth of Lorn tweed, ready for the catwalk in 2017.

A design by Lucas McLeod of Achaleven Primary School was worn by Liam Byers of Rockfield Primary School; Dunollie’s community engagement officer Melanie Davies made two of the costumes and presented the prizes; Edie Elliott of Rockfield, wore her own...