New Carnaby flagship, same Hawick factory since 1874. Carolyn Massey picks her FW13 essentials

Take Five with Lyle & Scott
Fashion | 7 October 2013
Above:

Lyle & Scott Factory, Hawick, Scotland in 1951

Lyle & Scott‘s knitwear, with its golden eagle insignia is another great and good of British style. When The Two Ronnies‘ Ronnie Corbett took to his stripey armchair for monologues in the 70s/80s, that’s what he wore – and it’s the first thing we check out in repeats. Mike Skinner’s a more recent advocate, and another we doff our snapback to, speaking life as we know it. Now the heritage brand has opened a flagship on London’s Carnaby Street, brimming with fresh ambition, Jester White its poster boy. We caught up with head of design Carolyn Massey to learn her winter 13 favourites. As a direct descendant of William Wallace, she’s the right one for the job.

Tartan Turtleneck Jumper

One of the first tasks with the brand was to get back to its roots. William Lyle didn’t have a tartan, but Walter Scott did, so it was simple choice to ask Clan Scott if we could use their tartan for FW13. This is the key piece of the season – everyone’s gone mad for this, roll necks are still such a strong look.

Block Textured Jumper
With knitwear being so important to the brand I tasked Lynn our knitwear designer to produce a piece where we could really show off – how many stitches could we get in one garment? How can we push this? We included Linen stitch, Tuck stitch, Cellular honeycomb stitch and Ottoman Rib in this crew neck style.

Check Trousers
These ‘Jazzy Trews’ from our golf range are perfect for on or off the course. Team with a plain pop colour sock and a fancy loafer.

 

Camo Polo Shirt AW13, selected by Carolyn Massey

Camo Polo Shirt
I think its always important to think about wardrobe building when designing and editing a collection. Camo is a bit of a staple in my book. We handpainted our own camo for this style, inspired by the original Dennison painted camo. I love the proportion of this print.

Fair Isle Knitted Bomber Jacket
One of the core messages that was important to communicate was getting back to Scotland – I’m half Scottish (and a direct desendant of William Wallace as my grandma will constantly remind me!) so I went up to the Museum of Shetland Life in Shetland to research Fair Isle. They have a really interesting archive of Fair Isle and some of the amazing makers on the island such as Andersons who have been making knitwear for just a year longer than Lyle. This led to developing an inhouse Fair Isle, which was a mix of archive designs and more modern colourways. The front panels of this bomber are actually knitted – which makes a great combination with the melton sleeves.

 

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