Douglas Fraser: "The professor is a splended eccentric"
It was an opinion that dared not speak its name - until now. The worlds of fashion and politics have collided after an MSP branded Scottish youngsters the worst-dressed in Europe.
Last night fashion experts defended the country's youth after Christopher Harvie, a 63-year-old politician and history professor, accused them of wearing "what must be the ugliest clothes" in the "entire continent".
And the person the SNP MSP holds most responsible for the state of the young nation is billionaire philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter, founder of Sports Division.
The politician, who lectured in Germany for 27 years, launched the scathing attack during a Scottish Parliament debate on ways of increasing tourism.
He was particularly disturbed by teenagers who put their "big muddy trainers" on the seats of buses.
The Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP added: "It must also be said that the most immense fortune that has been made in Scotland in the past few years - that of Tom Hunter - has arisen from selling people what must be the ugliest clothes worn by anyone on the entire continent.
"Bavarian kids rarely wear anything other than knickerbockers or something like that, but here that is replaced by universal sports goods, barely concealing the fact that Scotland is perhaps the least healthy nation in Western Europe."
But Jimmy Stephen-Cran, head of textiles and fashion at Glasgow School of Art, insisted many young Scots are so fashion conscious they put style ahead of practicality.
"The fashion sense in Scotland depends on where you are looking," he said. "I'm in the slightly fortunate position, in that I'm surrounded by design students who dress fantastically well. As a whole, though, Glaswegian youngsters dress for fashion - despite the weather. Torrential rain could be pouring down and they'd still be out and about in their peep-toe sandals. There are many well-dressed young people around."
Kelly Cooper Barr, fashion editor with The Herald, agreed - and scorned the comments as "typically ill-informed".
"This is just a case of another politician talking about something he knows nothing about," she said. "Scots youngsters are better dressed than others in Europe. Outside London, Glasgow is the city most in fashion."
Rather than being a fashion faux pas, Ms Cooper Barr believed Scots style is currently going through a renaissance - thanks to the inspirations of designers such as Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders, who count songstress Kylie Minogue and actress Thandie Newton among their many fans.
According to Belinda Dickson, the cashmere designer, and founder of Edinburgh-based Belinda Robertson Ltd, young Scots are among the most innovative when it comes to stepping out in style.
"I'm always impressed at how adept my younger clients are at mixing and matching. They see a cashmere sweater from our range as an investment, but may team it with cheap fashion accessories from the high street and look a million dollars," she said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Sir Tom Hunter who sold his Sports Division in 1998 for £29m said of Prof Harvie's comments, made during a Holyrood debate last week: "Had Tom taken Mr Harvie's sage advice, he would still be selling things out of the back of a van."
A SNP party spokeswoman insisted Mr Harvie's comments were made "in an individual capacity".
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