Will it take an American, rather than a Yorkshireman, to save Harris Tweed? Many Islanders, weary of years of poor investment, are fervently hoping so. But it's a frantic race against time.

The future of this unique and world-famous industry had been hanging by a thread in the four years prior to the purchase last December of the Stornoway-based KM (Kenneth Mackenzie Ltd) Group, the largest producer of Harris Tweed, by the Haggas textile group of Keighley, Yorkshire.

The takeover of the mill that produces much of the islands' tweed sent hopes soaring among the islands' 150 home-based weavers and 100 mill workers that at last production might start to climb again. Currently, around 700,000 metres of the cloth is made each year, down from seven million metres in the glory days of the 1960s, and four million metres in the 1980s when couture designers Vivienne Westwood, Donna Karan, Jean Paul Gaultier and John Galliano all used Harris Tweed and sealed its reputation as a high-fashion fabric.

Ten months on, however, the weavers and millworkers are still living under the shadow of uncertainty. Orders for 2007 are being fulfilled at the rate of 10,000 metres a week, but nobody yet knows what is happening beyond December. The high fashion customers have dwindled. US designer Ralph Lauren's plans to buy the idle Shawbost mill near Stornoway have yet to materialise.

Maureen Mackay of Luskentyre on Harris, whose husband Donald John is an independent weaver who supplied Nike with Harris tweed for its limited-edition trainers and whose newest customer is the high-fashion AmeriBag healthy back tote, said yesterday: "We're still in the dark about what's happening.

We desperately need someone to ensure orders keep coming in."

The Haggas group's plans are still unclear but it has been reported that managing director Brian Haggas plans to use the former KM mill to supply his own business, Brook Tavener in Yorkshire - which has been newly named Harris Tweed Scotland - most probably for men's jackets made up in Portugal and sold to high-end outlets in Japan, Germany and the US. Production will not begin, however, until Haggas is sure there is a market for the jackets.

A spokesman said yesterday: "Discussions about the future direction of the KM mill are still under way and a decision will not be made until the end of this year."

He added: "The good news is that there have been no compulsory redundancies so far."

Meanwhile, a Scottish-American businessman has moved in to push forward production at his own mill on the isle of Lewis and to ensure continuity of supply. He has also sponsored a Scots-American fashion designer, Lusmila McColl, to produce eight cutting-edge outfits made from single-width Harris Tweed for a fashion show that takes place in Glasgow next month.

Step forward Alan Bain, the Scots-American president of the American-Scottish Foundation in Manhattan, who with business partner Derek Reid - former chairman of the Scottish Tourist Board - has purchased the Carloway Mill, invested hundreds of thousands of pounds of his own money to ensure that production of traditional Harris Tweed can continue, and this year launched Harris Tweed Textiles USA to market it across the pond. Clients include the bespoke tailor Raja Daswani of Raja Fashions, believed to have dressed Tony Blair.

The Haggas group is stopping using the traditionally woven single-width tweed, which contains the blues, violets, yellows and greens that most poetically evoke the Hebridean islands themselves. The 150cm double-width tweed is more acceptable to automated cutting machines. But this, says Bain, is a fundamental mistake. It is vital, he says, to preserve single-width Harris Tweed, because it is a critical marketing issue on the international stage. To differentiate it from standardised double-width tweed, weavers use different colours and densities which give it a better handle, greater visual appeal and versatility.

"In my view, you can't look at Harris Tweed as a purely commercial venture because it's a craft, a culture and an entire way of life, so you have to look at it a little differently," he told The Herald on a recent trip to Glasgow.

So, many eyes are focused on Carloway, where last week all 11 workers were positively discussing a move to round-the-clock shifts in order to finish the 250,000 single-width metres already ordered for 2008. Employee numbers will more than double to 26 by January. Bain and Reid then plan to purchase more equipment in order to increase output further for 2009.

Carloway traditionally makes yarn between August and December, and tweed between January and July. But now they are running both yarn and tweed operations together all year round.

"I am so impressed by the islanders," says London-born Bain, whose father was from Aberdeen and whose mother came from Glasgow. "They have done an amazing job in getting the mill up and running, and installing the new equipment should be complete by November. It's nothing short of miraculous." He hopes that more young people will be persuaded to become weavers now that production is year-round.

Maureen Mackay says simply: "Bain and Reid really want to see this working and have pulled out all the stops to meet deadlines."

For his part, Bain says he envisages a collaborative working arrangement between Harris Tweed Textiles and Brian Haggas's company, Harris Tweed Scotland, in which weavers and customers are shared. In fact, he is even contemplating a scenario where demand outstrips supply.

"We have to work together and with the HTA (Harris Tweed Authority) to ensure we don't go out and sell more tweed than we can produce and thus destroy our credibility with customers," he says.


As well as heavily promoting Harris Tweed at the 2007 Tartan Week in New York, and bringing US department store fashion buyers to Lewis, one of Bain's most brilliant coups has been to recruit 36-year-old American designer Lusmila McColl to help persuade the world that Harris Tweed is still a viable high-fashion fabric.

He arranged for the Manhattan-based designer, whose mother's family is from Dumbarton and who worked with him to prepare for the American-Scottish Foundation's 50th anniversary, to be supplied with six metres each of eight different single-width bolts of tweed from the Carloway Mill and to design eight outfits for young people.

They will be shown next month at CatWalk, a charity fashion show to be held in Glasgow in aid of Maggie's Centre.

Speaking from her studio in Manhattan, McColl said: "I really feel Harris Tweed will find its niche with the younger MTV generation. It hits all the right ethical buttons. It's a completely natural product, made locally by local people and its carbon footprint is negligible. A strong connection to a local community is what the younger generation is looking for, not only in food but also in fashion."

Looking to the future, Bain believes the industry should be protected and celebrated by the Scottish Government. "If Harris Tweed were made in Japan it would be designated a national treasure in the same class as samurai swords and calligraphy," he says. "These are regarded as fundamental to the Japanese culture and their government doesn't want them to disappear, so it gets involved in many ways, such as training and marketing. Norway does the same.

It seems to me that Scotland is allowing one of its own national treasures to simply slide away."

Bain's personal investment in both the industry and the fashion show has added poignancy. His American-born wife died last year from cancer. His son married an Italian American, and he is now acutely aware of the dwindling Scottish diaspora in his country. "We're not getting an influx of Scots coming into America, so how do we preserve our diaspora when it's getting diluted like this? I feel strongly that it's up to me as a grandfather to preserve the heritage. By passing on my shares in Harris Tweed Textiles to my grandchildren, I can keep them connected to Scotland."

Meanwhile, he has much work to do to keep the rest of the world connected to traditional Harris Tweed.