Bobby Sekhon (centre), Mark Hogarth and Brian Wilson with the management of a leading gents’ outfitters in Chandigarh
where Harris Tweed is
highly regarded.
Surprisingly ready market for
Harris Tweed in India
BRIAN WILSON on a recent
visit to India with Harris
Tweed Hebrides
One of my favourite Harris Tweed
stories involves George Mallory,
who was probably the first man to
climb Everest in 1924 (having
done his training in Skye).
Unfortunately, Mallory did not
make it back down so nobody can be
certain. In 2000, the remains of the
intrepid climber were found near the
summit of Everest and, while there
wasn’t much left of Mallory, his
Harris Tweed jacket was intact.
That image has now become a
marketing tool. The American chain,
Rag&Bone — important new
customers of Shawbost last year —
“were initially inspired by early 20th
century British explorers,” according
to their co-founder, Marcus
Wainwright. “So this collection
references Britain in all its Colonial
glory, with specific focus on the
conquest of Mount Everest in Harris
Tweed.”
Anyway, the most basic
confirmation from the Mallory story
is that Harris Tweed and the Indian
sub-continent are no strangers.
Wherever the climate allowed, Harris
Tweed was the uniform not only of
climbers and adventurers but also of
the well-dressed Imperialist.
I guess it is a long time — maybe
a century? — since anyone visited
that part of the world to check out the
Harris Tweed market (unless anyone
knows differently?). Last week, I did
just that, along with Mark Hogarth,
creative director of Harris Tweed
Hebrides. But in the context of a
much-changed India.
Nobody would sell a metre of
Harris Tweed or anything else in India
today by directly invoking the name
of Empire. But historical connections
do not just disappear and the
traditions live on. In northern India at
least, Harris Tweed is widely
available, well known and highly
respected, but mainly among the older
elite who were brought up with Harris
Tweed-clad gentlemen around them.
The challenge is to transfer that
awareness and prestige to modern
India where there is a very large,
aspiring market for quality and style
among the newly-enriched middle-
class. In the leading tailors’ shops of
Delhi and Chandigarh, without
making the reason for our visit
known, we were told reverentially
that “Harris is the best”. That is not a withdrawal, a vision arose. It is alone. The project was first entrusted
bad starting point. generally credited to Nehru but a to American architects and, when
British colonial adminstrator called one of them died, they scoured
HARRIS TWEED HEBRIDES AL Fletcher (I wonder where he Europe for successors. The Swiss
inherited an agent in India, Bobby came from?) also had a lot to do with modernist architect, Le Corbusier,
Sekhon. He in turn inherited his it. Drawing on the concept of took on the project and his name is
interest from his father, formerly a “Garden Cities” then fashionable in forever associated with one of the
High Court judge in the Punjab and post-war Britain, they would create a great success stories of both urban
one of that generation who lived new, planned city called Chandigarh planning and modern India… which
through the traumas of Partition, to accommodate the refugees from also happens to be the epicentre of
which involved fleeing from Lahore the new Pakistan. Harris Tweed’s Indian revival!
when the Islamic state of Pakistan
But Nehru rejected the easy option Brian Wilson is the Chairman of
was created in 1947.
of depending on British experience Harris Tweed Hebrides
“Everybody knew Harris Tweed,”
the elder Sekhon asserts. “From
above a certain officer level, it was
normal for the British to wear it.”
Educated Indians also warmed to the
fabric — which is eminently well-
suited to the short but distinctly chilly
winters of the Punjab. And to this day,
they provide a loyal market which is
supplied both direct from Shawbost
and through international distributors.
This took us a little by surprise.
Every up-market men’s shop we
went into had its stock of Harris
Tweed. Mainly, the market is for
“bespoke” rather than off-the-peg
because the price differential is much
less than in most countries and the
tailoring skills are abundant.
Bobby Sekhon’s main business is
in exporting, which took him
frequently to London. Every trip, his
friends would ask him to bring back
Harris Tweed jackets. Eventually,
this led him to contact the mills in
Lewis to suggest that there was a
good potential market for them in
India. He formed a company called
Scottish Tweeds based in Chandigar
in the late 1990s.
He got an immediate response
from Donald MacLeod, the original
owner of the Carloway mill. Bobby
visited Lewis, went fishing and
became friendly with the MacLeod
family. They had big plans for Harris
Tweed in India. Then Donald lost
control (to put it delicately) of
Carloway and the strategy was never
pursued. At that point, Bobby
became agent for the KM Group and
latterly for HTH. He is a man who
knows his market and the strategy is
back on course!
THE OTHER GREAT delight of this
trip was that it took us to Chandigarh
which, as old India hands among our
readership may wish to confirm, is a
fascinating and inspiring place — quite
different from anywhere else in India.
Out of the mayhem which
followed Partition and the British