PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Use – (28 August 2007)

 

ANOTHER WORLD FIRST: ORGANIC DESIGNER TWEED COLLECTION

 

A stunning collection of designer ladies wear by Anja Hynynen and Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers

 

Lucky visitors to the Soil Association Organic Fashion Show this weekend (1st & 2nd September) will get a first glimpse of this unique and truly beautiful collection of original designer ladies jackets, trouser and skirts.

 

Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers and young Swedish designer Anja Hynynen have been working through the summer to create a collection of beautiful hand-made clothes to provide a worthy showcase for the exceptional organic tweeds that won the Best Organic Textile category at this year's Organic Industry Awards.

 

Anja said: “I was thrilled to be asked back to Ardalanish to create a collection. This has been my dream for a long time and now we are launching the collection in Bristol I can hardly believe it's real!” Anja first visited Ardalanish Farm in 2005 with her friend Madde shortly after they had both finished tailoring school. They spent two weeks on the farm helping out, clipping the sheep and working in the weaving mill. They departed with some Ardalanish tweed from which Anja made a stunning ladies coat.

 

While staying at Ardalanish this summer Anja created two collections, one for this Autumn that will be shown in Bristol this weekend and another for Spring 2008. The Spring collection includes men's wear and had it's first airing during Stockholm Fashion Week earlier this month. Both collections will be available from Ardalanish and a selection of independent retailers specialising in clothes made from organic and ethically produced fabrics including Ekovaruhuset which has branches in Stockholm and New York (www.ekovaruhuset.se).

 

In the meantime Madde has joined the Ardalanish workforce as an apprentice weaver and she will also oversee the training of the sewing team, as it was her skills with the sewing machine that propelled Ardalanish into the tailoring business in the first place. Consequently all orders for items from the Collection will be hand-made at Ardalanish by a small but growing team of Swedish and home grown tailors and seamstresses.

 

When asked about the recent developments in the business Minty Mackay said “The weaving apprenticeship. and organic certification were great achievements for us but it's really wonderful how everything has come together this year and the most exciting thing of all is that now we are making clothes at Ardalanish we are creating more genuinely interesting skilled jobs for young people here in the Hebrides.”

See www.ardalanish.com for images and more details.

 

For further information contact: Alex Connell or Minty Mackay - 01681 700 265

or email: info@ardalanish.com

 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

 

Organic Tweed

Production of the world's first organic tweed and the subsequent acclaim and awards were the result of a long standing collaboration between Ardalanish and key people within the British textile industry. Special mention should go to:

 

Tim Whittaker at Haworth Scouring,
Alan Barrowclough at New Lanark Heritage Centre,
and Douglas Ormiston at Schofields Dyers & Finishers.

Special thanks should also go to Master Weaver Bob Ryan and Weaver Mark Staley who actually created these remarkable fabrics.

 

High resolution images for press use can be found here