Where The museum is housed in Drumlanrig Tower, in the heart of the Scottish Borders.
What The Borders Textile Towerhouse explores over 200 years of the local textile industry, from historic hosiery and tweed to contemporary fashion and design.
Opened The Towerhouse opened in 2009 as part of the Heart of Hawick arts and culture-led regeneration project.
Collection The museum is home to equipment, garments and ephemera from the textile and knitwear industries. The collection includes around 500 garments, from 19th-century hosiery to 21st-century designer fashion. The museum also houses machines, including looms, linkers and a muckle wheel for spinning yarn.
The oldest machine is a stocking frame from 1798. A photo-bank shows the people and processes in the mills from the 19th century to the 1960s, as well as an archive of promotional fashion photos.
Highlights “The original stocking frame is a beautiful object,” says the museum’s curator, Shona Sinclair.
“It is the hand-frame that an individual would have made socks on – the textile trade was very much a cottage industry at that time,” she says. “I think from the garments we hold, the highlight would be our 1950s bejewelled cashmere sweater, designed by Dior in collaboration with the Hawick brand Lyle & Scott.”
Some of the Towerhouse’s more unusual items are first world war cashmere “stump socks” for amputees, and a 1970s publicity garment by the Scottish knitwear company, Pringle. “It was the fastest produced jumper in the world,” says Sinclair. “It went from the back of the sheep to the back of a model in 24 hours.”
Exhibitions Contemporary fashion from local mills, textile students’ graduate shows, and displays of the Towerhouse’s collection take turns on the catwalk display, changing around four times a year. Sinclair and her team make a conscious effort to showcase not just past, but also present, fashion crafted in the borders. “Part of our role is to give fanfare to what’s come out of the Scottish borders. We’re part of the high fashion industry.”
Help at hand The venue has four staff, including an education officer who promotes textiles career opportunities to local high schools. “We’re supported by seven volunteers that are retired from the industry but help us with expertise and cataloguing,” says Sinclair. “They’re a fantastic help.”
Budget As part of the charitable trust Live Borders, the museum is partly financed through the local authority. But it also relies heavily on income through visitor donations and its shop selling local crafts and textiles.
Proud moment “One of the things we’re really proud of is that a ski outfit from our collection will be shown in the V&A Museum of Design opening in Dundee later this year,” says Sinclair. The bright pink cashmere ski jumper and salopettes were made in Hawick by Pringle in the 1960s and will go on show in the Scottish Design Galleries.
Survival tips “Stay relevant and make sure you know what’s going on,” says Sinclair. “If there’s something completely new coming out of one of the mills, or if they’re doing something for a fantastic new designer, we need to be in the know and have that relationship so that we can showcase it.”
Visitors 10,000 to 15,000 a year.
Future plans The museum will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019 and may seek grant funding to launch more projects with the textile industry and in education.
Elena Chabo is a freelance writer
What The Borders Textile Towerhouse explores over 200 years of the local textile industry, from historic hosiery and tweed to contemporary fashion and design.
Opened The Towerhouse opened in 2009 as part of the Heart of Hawick arts and culture-led regeneration project.
Collection The museum is home to equipment, garments and ephemera from the textile and knitwear industries. The collection includes around 500 garments, from 19th-century hosiery to 21st-century designer fashion. The museum also houses machines, including looms, linkers and a muckle wheel for spinning yarn.
The oldest machine is a stocking frame from 1798. A photo-bank shows the people and processes in the mills from the 19th century to the 1960s, as well as an archive of promotional fashion photos.
Highlights “The original stocking frame is a beautiful object,” says the museum’s curator, Shona Sinclair.
“It is the hand-frame that an individual would have made socks on – the textile trade was very much a cottage industry at that time,” she says. “I think from the garments we hold, the highlight would be our 1950s bejewelled cashmere sweater, designed by Dior in collaboration with the Hawick brand Lyle & Scott.”
Some of the Towerhouse’s more unusual items are first world war cashmere “stump socks” for amputees, and a 1970s publicity garment by the Scottish knitwear company, Pringle. “It was the fastest produced jumper in the world,” says Sinclair. “It went from the back of the sheep to the back of a model in 24 hours.”
Exhibitions Contemporary fashion from local mills, textile students’ graduate shows, and displays of the Towerhouse’s collection take turns on the catwalk display, changing around four times a year. Sinclair and her team make a conscious effort to showcase not just past, but also present, fashion crafted in the borders. “Part of our role is to give fanfare to what’s come out of the Scottish borders. We’re part of the high fashion industry.”
Help at hand The venue has four staff, including an education officer who promotes textiles career opportunities to local high schools. “We’re supported by seven volunteers that are retired from the industry but help us with expertise and cataloguing,” says Sinclair. “They’re a fantastic help.”
Budget As part of the charitable trust Live Borders, the museum is partly financed through the local authority. But it also relies heavily on income through visitor donations and its shop selling local crafts and textiles.
Proud moment “One of the things we’re really proud of is that a ski outfit from our collection will be shown in the V&A Museum of Design opening in Dundee later this year,” says Sinclair. The bright pink cashmere ski jumper and salopettes were made in Hawick by Pringle in the 1960s and will go on show in the Scottish Design Galleries.
Survival tips “Stay relevant and make sure you know what’s going on,” says Sinclair. “If there’s something completely new coming out of one of the mills, or if they’re doing something for a fantastic new designer, we need to be in the know and have that relationship so that we can showcase it.”
Visitors 10,000 to 15,000 a year.
Future plans The museum will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2019 and may seek grant funding to launch more projects with the textile industry and in education.
Elena Chabo is a freelance writer