Plaid runner
A love of tartan and pride for Yorkshire led Merryn Wilderspin to launch a bespoke collection of bags and accessories in a colour palette reflecting the county. Cate Russell hears what inspired her.
IF you are proud of wearing your love of Yorkshire on your sleeve, or over your shoulder, a new collection of stylish bags and accessories might help nail your colours to the mast. When Merryn Wilderspin of brand TVFMR wanted to share her love for tartan and her home county, she created her Yorkshire Tartan range.
The collection printed on leather features a colour palette typically associated with the county’s flag – blue, green, white and yellow. “When I realised that I wanted a special and exclusive design that celebrated my Yorkshire heritage and identified TVFMR as a Yorkshire brand, I decided on a tartan in Yorkshire colours as I’ve always loved the timeless pattern and it seemed like the perfect fit,” she says.
Merryn is from Scarborough, where in the 1920s, her grandparents established a toy and sports equipment business, Wilderspin Sports, where the young Merryn helped as a girl. After studying she had an 11-year career in London in real estate development. Following a fiveyear stint with Balfour Beatty as development director at the Specialist Homes Division, she entered the world of digital technology as the recession hit in 1992. Here she spent 25 years managing the development and delivery of large scale web-based business applications.
She returned home to Yorkshire in 2014 to care for her late parents. She settled back into rural life in her home between Malton and Pickering, volunteering at the Milton Rooms in Malton. “Then Covid hit, and it gave me a natural break to think about what I should do next,” she recalls. “I had a lifelong love for photography, and I began posting images of the moors, coast and my garden. I had a huge response – the uplifting images lit up people’s lives.”
Merryn launched The View From My Rear business – the name inspired by the view of a rainbow arched over the cornfield she saw from the back of her garden. “When I saw that beautiful rainbow at a time when we all needed some joy in our lives, I knew I had to use that inspiration for good. The name makes people laugh.
“I began with photographic art prints and canvases of landscapes and iconic places and added abstract prints of my garden, flowers and trees. I have an instinct to create colourful and vibrant artwork that has appeal. I had a vast archive to draw on and soon produced merchandise collections.” These now include prints, stationery, bags, clothing, scarves, homeware and travel accessories.
Then she turned to the idea of launching a flagship collection of bags and accessories featuring tartan. “The decision to use colours typically associated with Yorkshire was a logical choice and I chose tartan as it’s my favourite classic pattern and links nicely to Scottish history relating to my Wilderspin surname.”
She used a design tool which creates authentic tartan textile patterns as developed by St Kilda, a traditional Scottish weav