Ardalanish design award

ADA


Ardalanish Designer Award

ADA 􀂲 Ardalanish Designer Award is a biennial award delivered by Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers

to a talented student designer of sustainable and organic fashion garments from a Scottish

Institution.



Weaving Mill and its exemplary model plays a huge part in the revival of this traditional Hebridean

industry.

Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers is looking for a talented designer to create four new garments for

its permanent womenswear collection.

The award recipient will win the unique opportunity to have his/her designs become a part of the

Ardalanish story.

He/she will be responsible for developing ideas into sketches and patterns that will be cut and sewn

into sample garments, supervising the making up of these, including fitting, detailing and

adaptations, and will work closely with Ardalanish design and production team over a two-­week

period.

A strong connection with/understanding of the place and its history, an awareness of the limitations

of natural resources available at Ardalanish, an understanding of sustainable concepts, along with

technical skills in areas such as pattern grading, cutting and garment construction, are essential.

The ADA consists of:

􀁸 £1000 prize

􀁸 Manufacturing of the garments for the Ardalanish Collection

􀁸 Marketing/ Advertising of the garments

􀁸 The opportunity to use the selected designs made into garments by Ardalanish for the

Degree Show.

HOW TO APPLY

A minimum of five A3 sketches are requested, along with a written proposal (vision) 800 words

maximum.

Applicants are invited to choose from the proposed list of garments, which form the Inside Ardalanish

Wardrobe (see Supporting Information). However, ideas for garments not included in the list will be

considered, as long as they can classify as separates, and worn in conjunction with any other

garments on the list.

Designs should strongly emphasize the two following elements:

Timelessness: achieved by sorting through the past for that which belongs to tomorrow.

Narrative: Garments should carry their own narrative, which intertwines with the one of

Ardalanish. They should reflect the place and the relationship to the place, and what brought them

to life (processes).

The four shortlisted candidates will be announced {...}, and will be required to submit toiles of their

designs for the Ardalanish creative team to consider. The winner will be announced {...}.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

About Ardalanish, Isle of Mull Weavers

Our story so far.

Minty and Aeneas MacKay bought Ardalanish in 1994. If you are looking out towards the beach the

land stretches 1600 acres to the right, along the coast and also back behind the farmhouse up the

g within your field of vision. When Minty

and Aeneas bought the farm, it was typical of the west coast with around 600 Blackface sheep and 30

Continental cows.

In the early part of the 19th century the population of Mull peaked at around 9000. These people


mainly through sustenance farming, cattle rearing, droving, and the kelp industry, the latter being

extremely labour intensive. If you look carefully you will see evidence of these people all over Mull.

Ruined villages & lazy beds become just part of the landscape but remember that they were lived in



closely linked to the land and to the animals. They worked and lived in tune with the day and in

tune with the seasons.

Kelp (seaweed) was used at that time to make glass, soap and fertiliser. When this industry, so

labour intensive, collapsed, the land could not continue to support the high population. At the same

time and in part due to the breakdown of the clan system, large areas of Scotland were sold. The

new landlords found it more economically viable to farm sheep, as wool was at a premium. Large

tracts of land were leased to southern sheep farmers who introduced the Cheviot and Blackface

breeds. Many people either left, were assisted to move, or were evicted. The Hebridean sheep (right)

and the people of this land had lost their foothold.

to remember



move from rural life to city life. This of course, has brought great luxury for many of us but some

h price.

On arriving here in 1994 Minty and Aeneas decided that they wanted to do something a little


agreement with the land instead of what felt like the more conventional approach of getting as much

as we could out of the land. To that end they decided to reduce the number of grazing animals

significantly. They also felt strongly that there were good reasons why specific breeds of sheep and

cattle had developed in these areas. Now Ardalanish is home to some 200 native Hebridean sheep

and 25 Highland cows. The land is alive with insect & bird life and tree regeneration is occurring

naturally.

So the first step was a reduced stock and more breeds that are suited to this environment. It also

fertilizers. There was now less pressure on the land so the need to artificially push its production


Association on board and by early 2000 the farm was certified organic.

Making more out of less.

One of the things about having less is that you have to be more careful with how you use what


but was there a way of using more of the animal? The logical thing to do was

product. And so in the early 2000 Ardalanish sent off its first batch of organic wool and it returned

to the farm as beautiful Hebridean woollen blankets that were sold in the farm shop.

Around that time Minty and Aeneas became aware of Isle of Mull Weavers run by Bob and Kathy


packaged all without leaving Mull. Was there a way to keep the weaving local too? They

approached Bob & Kathy and there started another vital part of the story. If you look through the

windows of the mill you will see the beautiful looms that are now used to produce our tweed here on


feared that he would have to destroy his looms because nobody wanted them. All that beautiful

machinery and all that skill and knowledge could have been lost! Minty and Aeneas decided that

they could not let that happen. During the winter of 2001 / 2002 they helped Bob move all of his

looms from Craignure to Ardalanish. At the same time they worked frantically to renovate the mill

and get it ready for the looms. When the mill was ready Bob rebuilt the looms in their new home.

Over the years that followed Bob passed on the knowledge of his craft to our first apprentice weaver,

Mark. Both Mark and Bob continue to be an important part of keeping this knowledge alive.

So early in 2002 we produced our very first bolt of tweed here on the farm. Quite quickly it became

apparent that we needed more raw fleece than our flock was able to provide. We started contacting

other small farms around the United Kingdom who had flocks of native breed sheep. Some supply us

with certified organic wool, others with wool from native breeds to whom we pay a fair price and


scale farmers were happy to be supplying someone who was prepared to give them a fair price for all

of their hard work.

Once
into different shades and qualities. The

still have challenges facing us with regard to sustainability and carbon footprint. At the moment our


garment. We are working on it though and one day we very much hope that we will have all of the

facilities for every process here at Ardalanish.

In the meantime one way that we can influence the impact our business has on the environment is to

ensure that as much of the process as possible is organic. As we
organic but we could only call the end product organic if it stayed organic all the way through all of

the processes involved. And so another part of the story begins. We approached the scourers, the

spinners and the finishers and we asked them if they would consider going organic. Some responded

more favourably than others but to all of their credit they got there! And at the same time we

worked hard to get the mill certified as organic. In early 2005 we produced our very first bolt of

ver since. Presently we are the only manufacturer of

organic tweed in the UK.

Taking it one step further.

and got it

to stage of finished tweed. Of course many of our sales are for just that. Small boutique designers

want small quantities of organic tweed for their clothing production and we supply to many of them

throughout the UK and abroad, such as Eloise Grey. In addition we deal with larger scale orders

such as Jigsaw UK who used Ardalanish organic tweed in their AW09 collection, and again for their

AW10 collection.

Supplying bulk tweed is one thing and it is of course a very important part of our business. But we


that mean? Well for us that meant designing and making our own clothing right here on the farm.

So, we bought ourselves a portacabin, moved it to that yard and that became our sewing room.

As with so many things at Ardalanish the right people turned up at the right time. We get many

WWOOFERS (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) coming to volunteer their time and in the

summer of 2007 Madde and Anja came over from Sweden. Both having studied tailoring and both

interested in ethical fashion, Ardalanish was a logical place for them to spend some time. It was later

that year that Anja designed the instantly classic Ardalanish Flounce Coat. And from the Flounce

Coat came a whole range now known as the Ardalanish Collection. Designed by Anja and sewn on

site by
leave on your back!

And into that bargain we got Madde. She is now our Mill Production Manager and full time weaver.

Over the years she has extracted as much information as possible from Master Weaver Bob who is

still known to visit on occasion, and is now in a unique position to pass on her skills to our new

apprentice Katrina.

Our shop carries the full range of what we presently produce at Ardalanish. To one side, you will see

the cutting table with a range of tweed bolts stored underneath. We sell organic and ethical tweed

by the metre both here and on line at www.ardalanish.com. To see examples of what that tweed can


Collection. These garments are available in a standard range of sizes and can be ordered in specific



let you know the waiting time before you leave.

In addition to the Ardalanish Collection we also have a range of sample garments from some of the

boutiques that use our tweeds, along with items such as blankets, scarves, throws, knitting yarn and

various gift items.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Inside Ardalanish wardrobe

WOMANSWEAR

Skirt (short/long)

Trousers (wide-­leg/slim-­leg)

Shorts

Jacket (day to night, day/night)

Waistcoat

Shift Dress

Coat

Short coat

Cape

Bag/Weekend bag

Hat

Pinafore dress (knitted yoke)

Bodywarmer