History
Since its establishment in 1797, the company has traded from its present site on the banks of the River Lossie. In all that time has been owned and run by just two families, the Johnstons and the Harrisons. As far back as 1851 the company has pioneered the weaving of Vicuna and Cashmere in Scotland and these fibres remain the foundation of the company’s products today. The original records of Johnstons of Elgin have survived several fires and floods and from them we learn that in the early days Alexander Johnston’s main business was linen and flax with a substantial input from tobacco and oatmeal. The first reference to Wool appears in the records in 1801 and it would seem from the Day Book that the Linen business was phased out during the first part of the 19th century and the woollen side became firmly established by 1810.
Thirty years later in the early 1840s Johnstons of Elgin was involved in the origination of a range of designs, which have become known as the Estate Tweeds. To some extent Estate Tweeds might be said to be the distant cousins of the Clan Tartans. Both tweeds and tartans identify groups of people, but while tartan identifies members of the same family no matter where they live, estate tweeds identify people who live and work in the same area whether they are related or not.
The development of the estate tweeds was largely due to the decline in the influence of the clan chiefs after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Landowners in the Highlands were seduced by the social life in Edinburgh and London but found that their estates could not support them in the style enjoyed by the southern aristocracy. Also at this time many people sought to follow the example of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by buying or renting a sporting estate or deer forest. It became fashionable for both owners and retainers to dress in the same pattern of tweed.
A secondary reason for the creation of the estate tweeds was the need to provide a camouflage for the stalkers when they were hunting on the hill. Some of the checks, to look at, might appear to do the opposite but it is surprising how effective many of the brightest tweeds are good at breaking up a man’s outline on the hill. In most cases the colours chosen were those which blended well with background of the mountain and moor in an area.
The late Lord Lovat related how his grandfather had pointed out to his wife that the colours of the sand, heather, bracken, bluebells and birches on the far shore of the Loch Morar blended together to make one beautiful colour effect. From this inspiration Johnstons created the original Lovat mixture.
Originally the estate tweeds were woven in heavyweight cloths which were designed to withstand life on the hill and the Scottish weather. Around the start of the 20th century, these designs were interpreted in the lighter weight fabrics for more general use. At the end of the 1960s, Johnstons ignored precedent and invested in knitwear manufacturing. Originally sited in Elgin, manufacture was transferred to Hawick in the heart of the Scottish borders in the late 1970s. This division has continued to flourish. Johnstons of Elgin has expanded dramatically in the last part of the twentieth century and the company now has one of the most sophisticated weaving and knitting plants in the world. The whole company operates on the principle that only the best is good enough and this policy extends from purchasing the finest raw materials, through design to manufacture. Johnstons is the UK's last remaining vertical woollen mill and the only one still to carry out all processes from raw material to finished garments.
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