The Waverley Gazette

'Aren’t they awfully, well, Scottish?"

'Aren’t they awfully, well, Scottish?"

Yesterday at the Spring Show in Birmingham two different store owners from Sussex, and another from Dorset, came by our stand and asked us if our tartan notebooks would sell in the south of England: ‘Does tartan sell there?’

A few minutes later we smiled as a young woman wearing a blue and black tartan mini skirt passed us and stopped. She was from the south of England. As the day progressed, the array of tartan in ties, scarves, trousers and skirts worn by customers in the aisles constantly caught our eye. Tartan is the thing to wear, and seems to be being worn to stand out. It’s colourful, eye-catching and a lot of fun.

Our stand is in Hall 3 (3L34) and this is our third year exhibiting at one of the world’s biggest gift shows. And it’s very nice to be here. The people in Birmingham are very friendly and welcoming, and we like it.

The Waverley Scotland tartan commonplace genuine tartan cloth notebooks are a very high quality notebook designed in Glasgow and made with great attention to detail. They are fun, colourful and good to hold and to use. The notebooks are now into their third year and on sale all over the world through customers who have bought them for their stores – many are customers we met two years ago at this show. Today we hope again to attract a lot of visitors to our stand at the Spring Show and welcome all the interest in our notebooks.

We began the genuine tartan cloth notebook range because around five years ago we were approached by Deirdre Kinloch Anderson, of Kinloch Anderson. They are a family of tailors and makers of Highland Dress. Kinloch Anderson wanted us to create a book about their company. And it is a long history. In summer 2018 Kinloch Anderson celebrates 150 years of its family firm. Their story started in Edinburgh on the North Bridge. As tailors, they made Scottish tartan dress and uniforms. The book is a beautiful coffee table illustrated book that tells the story of how the family created Highland Dress outfits for over 150 years and their history as a bespoke kilt company. The title is ‘A Scottish Tradition’. Today Kinloch Anderson holds Royal Warrants for supply of Highland Dress to members of the Royal Family.

We had produced notebooks before with licensed Scottish characters and loved the idea of working with genuine tartan cloth. We have published books on history and culture, and heritage for many years. We became curious about the story behind tartan, and then began to work out how we could produce stationery using genuine tartan cloth. As our list of tartan notebooks grew, we became fascinated by the stories behind the cloth we were working with.

British mills are still making genuine tartan cloth, and all the cloth is supplied with the authority of Kinloch Anderson. We are a small company based in Glasgow and are pleased to be at the Spring Show and to meet so many people interested in what we have to show. We are also intrigued by the number of tartan scarves, trousers, coats, dresses, bags and skirts (including some mini skirts yesterday) being worn by visitors to the show. Tartan is colourful, fun, attractive and memorable. And a talking point. We are at Stand 3L34 – come and see us.