Dior’s knitwear team also visited the Esk Cashmere factory in Dumfriesshire. Esk Cashmere is a family-owned knitwear company that works with cashmere and Shetland yarns, exploring variations of the classic stitches and patterns characteristic of the country, including Fair Isle designs.
“We worked very closely together on the collection,” says Stuart Maxwell, owner of Esk Cashmere. “Cashmere knitwear must be made with yarn and spun with long-length animal fibres. There is no substitute here, and I found the Dior team’s understanding of the process very high — which made the process a pleasure.”
Jenny Urquhart, fourth-generation family member and vice-chair of Johnstons of Elgin, whose Elgin mill dates back to the 18th century, shares a similar sentiment: “For generations, our purpose has been in protecting and developing rare textile manufacturing craft skills. To have Maria Grazia Chiuri and her team select Scottish makers for the Dior show is not only a reflection of the quality and beauty of our work but an enormous endorsement and support for Scottish textile manufacturing.”
Photo: Yannis Vlamos/WWD via Getty Images
Chiuri attributes her collaborative way of working to her native country’s luxury manufacturing expertise. “My Italian background means that I find this way of working directly with the factory very normal,” Chiuri says. “It was probably for me the first shock, the first surprise, when I moved to Paris, where the tradition is very steeped in making everything inside the atelier. So it was a process trying to explain that my way of working included other companies. But we got there.”