Cashmere if you can

With Scottish knitwear now appearing on the international designer catwalks as high-fashion in its own right, Kate Patrick talks us through some of the best places for pullovers in Scotland

Thanks to a phenomenal renaissance in the popularity of Scottish cashmere and other high-quality knitwear, the wool-hungry shopper no longer actually needs to go to Scotland to buy it.

With top Scottish designers producing collections alongside their own – Belinda Robertson for Michael Kors, Hillary Rohde for N Peal and Matthew Williamson, and Johnstons of Elgin for Hermes and Burberry – you're as likely to find a ‘Made in Scotland' label in New York City or Milan as in Hawick or Brora.

Even Pringle – which was typecast for years as the designer behind Nick Faldo's preferred golfing sweater – is now producing the kind of designs that are not just warm on a windy day. As worn by Sophie Dahl, the company's new ‘face', they're positively ultra-violet.

All of which is good for the retailers who, for years, were forced somehow to make a shapeless navy V-neck or baggy beige cardigan look sexy. Buying 'Made in Scotland' in Scotland is just so much more fun now.

Jenners, the old-established department store in Edinburgh, led the way in backing these companies through their reinvention, and is now reaping the rewards as the high-fashion – but reassuringly well-made – designs from Ballantyne and Pringle leap off the shelves.

I can quite happily immerse myself in the first-floor knitwear department for a whole afternoon, just to come away with the perfect sleeveless polo-neck.

This spring Ballantyne, still produced in Scotland but with a new team of Italian designe...

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• By : Kate Patrick
• In : Contemporary Scotland
• Issue : 13
• Page : 42
• Words : 1,226