A DESIGN DIALOGUE WITH THE SCOTTISH TEXTILE INDUSTRY

This paper presents the results of a year long dialogue with the Scottish textile industry on the relevance and importance of design to its future growth and success.

The shift of Scottish textile manufacturing to the Far East beginning in the 1980’s resulted in a huge fall in regional employment. Companies had no internal mechanism for survival, being mostly dependent on just one or two major retailers for their entire business with little or no in-house design ability. The reliance of ‘make-to-order contracting’ with no internal design and marketing left companies without an innovation culture to draw from in this changing global market and no external identity to the consumer.

Design integration is now improving within companies. The Scottish textile market, after a period of decline has begun to re-establish itself and is no longer dominated by the large manufacturing companies but primarily made up of Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Scottish textiles has retained a reputation for quality and by moving towards niche markets, which are more linked to contemporary fashion and lifestyle has an opportunity to succeed in a global context. This trend offers major challenges and opportunities for the Scottish textile industry.

An initiative launched in 2005 by Scottish Enterprise entitled ‘Textile Lab’ aimed to explore and support the integration of design into five Scottish Textile businesses. The remit of the project was to “encourage Scottish textile businesses to experiment with product, or market diversification: through new partnerships, collaborations and research. The project will support six textile companies to develop a creative strategy and undertake an innovative project that will lead to new markets, increased sales and an increased innovative culture within business.”

The authors collaborated with Scottish Enterprise as the University partner on the project. They mapped the creative process in each of the companies involved, capturing the dialogue from initiation to conclusion between the designer and the host company.

Textile Lab has proved to be instrumental in developing a stronger relationship between design and manufacture in Scottish textile businesses. Through the project, new cutting edge products have been developed with design innovation being key to their success. The project highlights the importance of design within the industry and the evolving identity of Scottish textiles in an international context. A number of key areas for the future development of the industry have been identified and will be discussed in the paper.