A GOOD YARN

The Chanel-owned Barrie cashmere factory in the hills of the Scottish borders is spinning poetry.

The oldest and one of the last cashmere factories in Scotland (it was founded in 1903 by Walter Barrie and Robert Kersel, with machines saved from the Luddites) is changing the way we look at cashmere.

The factory has long been chosen over Italian mills for its matchless quality, perfecting a combination of rarefied hand-finishing and the latest technology. Or perhaps, as connoisseurs of the whiskey distilled in these parts say, there is just something in the soft Scottish water.

Either way, Barrie’s designs are one of the most extreme counterweights to fast fashion you will find.

The bulk of Chanel’s cashmere – including its signature two-tone twinsets – have been made at Barrie for the past 30 years. On the walls of the studio are Karl Lagerfeld’s deftly drawn sketches for the coming season.

Yet it has not always been this auspicious. In 2012, its holding company, Dawson International, went into administration, but thankfully, Chanel’s Paraffection subsidiary company stepped in as safeguard.

“Barrie knitwear and Chanel is a love story that no-one saw coming,” says Suzy Menkes, Vogue international editor. “Although the Scottish business of warm knitwear is part of history, Barrie’s relationship with Chanel has given what were once winter clothes a new, glamorous and all-year energy. The workmanship with cashmere is as impressive as haute couture – from the finest lacy threads to the thick tweedy yarns. The result is a happy fashion marriage between two companies who, it turns out, are made for each other.’’

And the union makes Barrie one of the prestigious Métiers d’Art, Chanel’s 23 haute couture satellite artisans, which include embroiderers, pleat-makers and plumiers.

With its unparalleled expertise protected, the next step in the rescue plan was to create the Barrie in-house knitwear brand, which launched in 2014 with 20 pieces.

Bringing a contemporary eye to Barrie’s savoir-faire is Paris-based artistic director Odile Massuger, who oversees knitwear at Chanel.

“We know how to make beautiful things, but we know nothing about branding,” says Clive Brown, Barrie’s sales director, who joined the company 35 years ago as a trainee millman “Yet now we have the expert power of Chanel behind us. We have the amazing Odile Massuger designing the collection. This business has a very strong future.”

With fashion’s renewed focus on Scottish knitwear, the timing is also perfect.

The Aran sweaters that dressed the seats of the Alexander McQueen autumn/ winter 2018 show in March, complete with the show-goer’s name stitched into the label, were one of the most engaged with on social media.

“I think Barrie stands for quality, authenticity, slow-manufacturing, eco sensitivity – traits that are increasingly being valued, thank God, in fashion,” says Lisa Armstrong, head of fashion at UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper. “Barrie is definitely challenging preconceptions about what knitwear can be and how upscale it can feel and look. I feel that athleisure has peaked in high fashion circles – although we’ll never want to let go of that sense of comfort. Luxury knitwear is the perfect bridge.”

Barrie’s drawstring jumpsuit, worn with a zip-up hoodie or denim-feel jacket, certainly has that lavishness and ease.

A new pattern cutter, Emma Beswick, who was previously at Vivienne Westwood and Julien Macdonald, is perfecting shape and fit so that now there are full-length dresses and complete head-to-toe cashmere looks. “We are in a completely unique position in the market as the only brand offering a total look in cashmere, as all the pieces from our collections are made entirely of cashmere,” says Brown.

Some 40 procedures are involved in knitting and assembling a garment, and, wherever possible, the pieces are crafted by hand, whether it is the 30 ladies who do nothing but sew, or the experts who cut and comb the fringed yokes.

Steady fingers slice necklines (a skill which takes a year to master) and while the cloth may be cut, corners aren’t – even the haute couture buttons are entirely bespoke and enamelled to perfectly match the adventurous colours of Barrie’s Arran Pop cardigans.

These ancestral rituals work seamlessly alongside the latest Japanese Shima Seiki machinery to achieve Barrie’s signature combination of intricate intarsia, 3-D relief and texture. It can take the team of creative interpreters up to a week to electronically program the more complex designs into the machinery.

“In all the years I have been involved in this industry, I have never seen product this detailed until the Barrie project – it really is pushing the limits of what is technically possible,” says Brown. “It is couture-level knitwear at reasonable prices.”

And it is fashioned from yards of the most luxurious cashmere, chosen for its resistance, lightness and softness. The yarn itself is sourced from the hircus goat from Inner Mongolia, with the hair gently teased from the belly. It takes four animals to make a single sweater and, says Brown, the hair is “the rarest and most expensive”.

Once knitted, the cashmere quality needs to be deemed flawless. The different parts are then washed in the unpolluted water from the nearby River Teviot, which gives the cashmere its softness by opening up fibres. The timing of the wash takes years to master, as it is determined only by the garment’s shape and colour. “It was two years before I was allowed to wash the cashmere,” Brown remembers of his days working on the factory floor. “You look at how the hair is lifting and only an experienced craftsman is authorised to touch the fibres and set the exact time for washing. The fabric would clump if over-washed, while under-washing would make the cashmere rough.”

More yarn is woven into the designs than their Italian or Chinese counterparts and it is knitted more tightly together with the hair trapped to prevent it from pilling or bobbling.

To create a new generation of Barrie artisans, in 2012 the brand opened an internal school. “It is important to invest in the future so we started an integrated training centre to convey to young people the know-how and love of this artistic craft, which they will then be able to use at the Hawick factory,” says Brown.

It’s a world away from the Barrie of old but like that other great Scottish export, it only gets better with age.

“I think Barrie stands for quality, authenticity, slow-manufacturing, eco sensitivity – traits that are increasingly being valued”