From Underwear to Outerwear: The Influence of Machinery on Creativity and Garment Styling in the Scottish Knitwear Industry, 1920s–1970s

Abstract

Although machine knitted garments are ubiquitous today, they have only been manufactured for little over a century. The growing popularity of knitted outerwear and the demand for readymade clothing during the interwar period gave hosiery manufacturers an opportunity to diversify their product range using machinery and processes previously only used for the production of underwear. This case study uses the surviving design books of a single company, Peter Scott and Co. Ltd, based in the Scottish Borders to explore a little-known period of creative experimentation. The company exploited two very different types of production during the years between the wars. A comparison of these, and the garment designs they yielded, offers an opportunity to interrogate the relationships between design, product, and process. An examination of the relationship between product and machinery reveals influence and opportunity as well as negotiation and restriction. This case study not only assesses the influence of machinery on garment styling but also serves to place design into the context of business and industry, which can reveal how business dilemmas, choices and challenges impacted its use.