Heriot-Watt student wins Kingsman tailor's challenge

Lois Cowie's winning design will be turned into a sports jacket

A student is to have her textile design turned into a sports jacket by the tailor which helped to inspire the Kingsman movies.

Lois Cowie, from Buckie, is at Heriot-Watt University's School of Textiles and Design in the Borders.

She won the design challenge set by Savile Row tailor Huntsman and Huddersfield Fine Worsteds (HFW).

Ms Cowie said her work had been inspired by the sandstone tenements of Glasgow where she lived for two years.

The fabric will be woven by HFW

"I'm really chuffed to have won this challenge, as I put a lot of work into it," she said.

"My design is inspired by the contrasts in Glasgow's Merchant City, where I used to live.

"It's full of 17th Century buildings and lots of people working in serious jobs."

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However, she said it was a "different place at night" with "lots of clubbing and celebration".

"I tried to reflect that in my use of colours, with beiges for the sandstone buildings and reds and pinks for the night-time aspects," she said.

The jacket will go on display in Huntsman's window on Savile Row

Her design will be woven into a 60-metre (197ft) length of cloth by HFW before being turned into a jacket by Huntsman and displayed in its window on Savile Row.

Iain Milligan, HFW managing director and Campbell Carey, the creative director at Huntsman, both trained in Galashiels at the Scottish College of Textiles, the forerunner to Heriot-Watt's School of Textiles and Design.

Mr Milligan said they had been "very impressed" with the quality of entries.

"Campbell and I are both from Glasgow, so we were drawn towards Lois' Glasgow-inspired design," he said.

"But we also liked the big and bold design, which will work well as a woven cloth and will look good in Huntsman's window."

Mr Carey said all the work submitted had been "unbelievably good".

"What's particularly remarkable is that the students have really only had two years to learn and get up to speed with weaving, which isn't easy, as it's a very time-consuming process," he said.

"But we could really see the hard work and passion of the students coming through."

Fiona Pankhurst, assistant professor in woven textile design at Heriot-Watt, said the students had worked "incredibly hard" and it was great to hear such "positive feedback" on their work.