‘We’re brilliant at creativity’ – Scotland’s icons of style

“People say tartan is a thing of the past but that’s not true,” says broadcaster Kirsty Wark.

She’s keen to scotch that particular myth as she prepares to launch a two-part documentary into the history of Scottish fashion.

The programme includes the work of Samantha McCoach, a contemporary designer who is reinventing tartan for a new generation.

Samantha says that she owes her fashion brand, Le Kilt, to her Italian born grandmother.

“When she moved from Italy to Edinburgh she walked into a kilt-making shop on the Royal Mile, started pleating fabric and then became a kilt maker – and did that for 40 years,” she explains.

“She made me a little Black Watch kilt which I wore all the time when I was working at Fred Perry, and it became my uniform. People kept asking me how to get one.”

Samantha launched her own brand in 2014, after she and her granny got to work on 12 different tartans at the kitchen table.

Ten years later, she showcased her work in a much grander setting as part of a Dior showcase at Drummond Castle in Perthshire.

“It was an incredible experience to be involved in such a wonderful show with so many artistans and to be able to showcase my granny’s story was very special.”

Dior has had links to Scotland since the fashion house was first established in 1946.

It has staged several shows here, including the one at Drummond Castle last year which was attended by Anya Taylor Joy, Rosamund Pike and Jennifer Lawrence.

In 2012, Linlithgow Palace played host to a Chanel showcase which used model Stella Tennant and her Scottish heritage as the inspiration.

But the couture houses find more than inspiration in Scotland.

Chanel took over the cashmere mill Barrie Knitwear in the Borders which had gone into administration.

The Scottish/French label La Fetiche uses a number of Scottish businesses including the micro weaving mill, Vevar, in the east end of Glasgow.

“Fashion is so important and we don’t shout about it enough,” says model and broadcaster Eunice Olumide.

“We have some of the biggest luxury couture houses designing right here in Scotland and we also have some of the most successful designers being influenced by Scottish fashion, from Vivienne Westwood to Alexander McQueen.”

Kirsty Hassard, a curator and fashion historian at the V&A Dundee, says the success of fashion exhibitions like Tartan and Mary Quant demonstrates the cloth’s continuing popularity – and the desire to know more about it.

She showed me a bright orange coat and skirt which featured in the V&A’s Tartan exhibition.

It is in a fabric made by the Serbian-born designer Bernat Klein, who lived in the Scottish Borders. He worked for Balenciaga and Chanel, but also provided textiles for the wholesale market.

The outfit was made in 1973 by the woman who went on to wear it – Judith Eason, a keen dressmaker and fan of Klein’s.

“It shows the range of fashion, from high end to the woman who made this in her own home and treasured it,” says Kirsty.

She believes an in-depth look at fashion at every level is long overdue.

“Fashion is a true powerhouse. A place like Dundee was built on textiles and it’s something we may have slightly forgotten.

“This programme reminds us of the impact that textiles have had.”

The link between music and fashion is illustrated by singers like Annie Lennox.

She offered the perfect canvas for designers, particularly those who were able to enhance her other-worldly, androgynous look.

Sometimes there is serendipity, like the night in 2007 when Paisley-born Pam Hogg bumped into Kylie Minogue the night before she recorded the video for her single Two Hearts.

Pam had an outfit based on a collection she made in the late 1980s.

“I thought it needed a little sparkle so I put these studs on,” she recalls.

“A week later I went to this club in Shoreditch and I met Kylie. She said: ‘Pam I’m so glad, I bumped into you. I’m doing a video tomorrow. I don’t suppose you’ve got anything I can wear?’

“I said: ‘I’ve got just the thing, it will fit you like a dream’!”

Zandra Rhodes designed many of the clothes worn by pop group the New Seekers, whose 1970s hits included I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.

The band’s members included Eve Graham, who was born in Auchterarder.

“We had dresses made for us by the BBC for the various shows we did. We were the coathangers,” she says.

Eve only kept one of her 70s dresses – the voluminous bell-sleeved number she wore during their appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in 1972.

Growing up in Perthshire, a schoolboy called Alan Cumming quietly admired the fashion icons around him – including Eve Graham.

While he’s now known for his vibrant outfits as the host of the US version of The Traitors, Alan had to keep his fashion choices secret from his father – who didn’t approve.

He admits to being “obsessed” with Eve Graham.

“I wrote a letter to her mum in Coupar Angus and asked next time she was home if she could send me a signed photograph.

“And she did!”

Fifty years later, the two were finally introduced when Eve sent Alan a video message as part of the documentary.

“Hi Alan, thank you for your kind words,” she said.

“But I could say the same about you because you look absolutely gorgeous on the Traitors.”

Kirsty Wark says it’s time to take fashion seriously.

“I don’t think we make enough of it,” she says.

“We just need to make much more noise about what we’re good at, and we’re brilliant at style and creativity.”