Output details

Lumatwill: sports, heritage and technology

This research output saw the application of Lumatwill as a functional new fabric for cycling wear; the finishing and potential waterproofing of the fabric required considerable development work to ensure its usability and application in apparel, specifically for cycling. Revisiting the idea of tweed as the original historical sportswear fabric, Dashing Tweeds (McDougall and Guy Hills’ company) showed a range of garments including a scooter coat, cycling cape and flat cap cut in Savile Row, at the cycling fashion show ‘Wheels and Heels’ in February 2008.

This sport-centred collection drew on references from ‘Flectron’ in the 1960s and brought together a combination of archetypal woollen heritage tweeds and high visibility filament yarns to create new practical, technological and contemporary fashion fabrics. It was commercially launched with extensive press coverage leading to McDougall’s invitation to exhibit at the V&A’s ‘Fashion Vs. Sport’ exhibition exploring and debating the aesthetics of fashion and sport (2008–9). The ‘Dashing Tweeds’ cycling suit, together with a short film featuring it, was selected for the show. McDougall was subsequently awarded a Jerwood Makers Prize for Textiles in 2010 for Lumatwill and was invited to participate in a fashion exhibition titled ‘Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion’ (2013), curated by Lesley Irvine at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, USA, which included a wide range of sartorial references focusing on the ‘sharp dressed man’. The Lumatwill textile collection includes approximately 20 designs and has sold extensively internationally. It has been profiled by the Billionaire Boys Club, on the Depeche Mode world tour, by Converse trainers, and by Bless in Paris and Berlin. It also featured in BBC2’s ‘Genius of Design’ (2010) and was disseminated within an IFFTI conference paper at Stroud International Textile Festival, ‘Off the Loom: Woven Explorations in Art, Science and Industry’ (2011).

SEE DIGITAL PORTFOLIO.