You just wonder how anyone with years of experience in the textile industry and that much money to invest could get it so badly wrong. I can only suspect he's the type to close his ears to anyone's advice and be stubborn in his own arrogant belief in his own judgement. Which explains his putting the blame for his lack of sales on the fabric and the public rather than his gross misjudgement and the fact the jackets are dull and dated. And yes, Chinese produced! How illogical is that!
What I find shocking is his ridiculous assumption that noone except middle-aged and elderly gentlemen should want the fabric! Noone younger, no women! And I also think there should be legislation to prevent anyone closing off supplies and monopolising an industry in that way. He could've ruined some smaller businesses by his actions. I know I tried to get hold of some Harris Tweed a year or so ago and it was nigh on impossible to get anything except Ebay remnants. And to take away all the beautiful, magical colours....! Criminal!
The Harris Tweed Authority can't be absolved from blame either. Yes, Harris & Lewis are far away from the rest of the UK, but it isn't the 30s. There's TV, internet. You can buy a Vogue there same as anywhere else! I think they'd become too complacent about their product. It's an aging community and a very conservative one. But that's no excuse for being so out of touch with the markets they're supposed to be selling to. Those gonks were just embarrassing and spoke volumes about how wrong they were getting it. No excuse when there are some very talented artisan craftspeople in the Islands producing very beautiful and very stylish items (the photographer that I'm working with is from Lewis funnily enough and is a textile designer originally).
Mind you, I can imagine some of the couthy comments in Stornaway pubs about that strange Englishman (Guy Hills) in the loud tweeds LOL!
Things seem to be looking up though, and it's getting on track. I'm looking forward to next week's episode.
What I find shocking is his ridiculous assumption that noone except middle-aged and elderly gentlemen should want the fabric! Noone younger, no women! And I also think there should be legislation to prevent anyone closing off supplies and monopolising an industry in that way. He could've ruined some smaller businesses by his actions. I know I tried to get hold of some Harris Tweed a year or so ago and it was nigh on impossible to get anything except Ebay remnants. And to take away all the beautiful, magical colours....! Criminal!
The Harris Tweed Authority can't be absolved from blame either. Yes, Harris & Lewis are far away from the rest of the UK, but it isn't the 30s. There's TV, internet. You can buy a Vogue there same as anywhere else! I think they'd become too complacent about their product. It's an aging community and a very conservative one. But that's no excuse for being so out of touch with the markets they're supposed to be selling to. Those gonks were just embarrassing and spoke volumes about how wrong they were getting it. No excuse when there are some very talented artisan craftspeople in the Islands producing very beautiful and very stylish items (the photographer that I'm working with is from Lewis funnily enough and is a textile designer originally).
Mind you, I can imagine some of the couthy comments in Stornaway pubs about that strange Englishman (Guy Hills) in the loud tweeds LOL!
Things seem to be looking up though, and it's getting on track. I'm looking forward to next week's episode.
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