Yahoo Finance It’s a wrap: the joy of an autumn blanket
Every year since my childhood, I have been in the habit of leaving out a whisky for Santa alongside reindeer snacks on Christmas Eve. It had never occurred to me that poor old Saint Nick would be sozzled in his sleigh while house-hopping until my tradition bumped into that of a friend who lived south of the border. Their family would leave a wholesome tray of milk and cookies for consumption, as opposed to my ratio of one part hard liquor to three parts carrot. Still, I haven’t deviated from the tradition, and now my own children deliver a dram to Father Christmas before nodding off to dreamland the night before Noel.
The thing about traditions is they must be adhered to, or else they fizzle out. The deeper they sink into your skin, the harder they are to wash away, until they become the fabric of your very DNA. One such custom that I especially cherish is the gifting of blankets whenever someone moves into a new home, gets married or has a baby. I love the idea that one piece of fabric can be used in a multitude of ways, from covering yourself with it on a sleepy, couch-bound afternoon to laying it out in the woods for the perfect picnic.
One particularly memorable occasion was the time I gave a rose and cream tartan creation from Lochcarron as a wedding gift to the oldest friend of my husband, who was the best man at the ceremony. The groom was marrying his American love, who adored the blanket so much that I still get satisfaction thinking about it – the weaving of the warp and weft somehow symbolic of two independent souls coming together.
I also have a fondness for incorporating blankets into my wardrobe – after all, living north of Hadrian’s Wall means additional layers are a necessity 50 weeks out of 52. For me, the origins of this sartorial habit sit somewhere between the weaving floor of the mills I’ve worked for and the night Karl Lagerfeld gifted me a steely grey and blue tartan blanket with a thistle embroidered on it.
Then, of course, there was my work on the Shepherd’s Plaid Project, which will for ever remain etched in my heart. Back in 2015, I came across a ludicrously long style of wrap in a checked design that you traditionally see worn on grooms, draped ceremoniously around the torso in conjunction with a kilt or trews. Sir Walter Scott made it famous 200 years ago while wooing George IV on his visit to Edinburgh after tartan was banned during the 1745 rebellion; however, the style dates back further still, to an era when it was most commonly worn by shepherds. Woven from lambswool, it was used centuries ago to shield shepherds from the elements as they collected their lambs from the hillsides. They would wrap those little woolly babies inside the plaid, using it like a papoose, to bring them home safely.
The story resonated with me, sparking an idea to weave them in non-traditional colourways: satsuma orange combined with bubblegum pink; magenta with fuchsia; baby blue with cerulean. The project caught the eye of the design team at Céline, who approached our mill about the black and navy style, which went on to feature in their autumn/winter collection, in the form of a giant, oversize blanket scarf that had a lovely length but a slimmer width. Today, that plaid textile takes pride of place, draped at the bottom of our super-king-size bed. I only need to run my hand over it to relive that special moment.
Listen to Lynne Coleman’s podcast at www.aguidetoluxury.com.
