Harris Tweed

Harris Tweed is a type of luxury cloth. Called Clo Mhoris in Gaelic, it is hand-woven by the people of the Outer Hebrides. The Outer Hebrides is a large group of islands located off the western coast of Scotland.Following England, Scotland was the next country to begin the Industrial Revolution. During this time, the people of the mainland turned to mechanical ways of manufacturing cloth. By contrast, the island people continued to use traditional ways of producing cloth. For quite some time, Harris Tweed was manufactured for personal use only. In the early 1900's the production of Harris Tweed for non-personal use increased. In 1966, production peaked when the number of yards manufactured reached a whopping 7.6 million. Having reached its peak, the production of Harris Tweed declined. However, the cloth was not alone, as the rest of the textile industry also declined throughout Europe.Today, all Harris Tweed is stamped with the cloth's official symbol. This symbol is an orb, trademarked by the Harris Tweed Association. It is currently governed by the Harris Tweed Authority. In recent years, the cloth has been used by Nike to update its Terminator basketball shoes. Nike ordered the cloth from the mills on the Isle of Harris. Additionally, the cloth has received some publicity from The Da Vinci Code. In The Da Vinci Code, the fictional character named Robert Langdon sports Harris Tweed.