As Scots don their clan tartans in celebration of national bard Robert Burns this weekend, they may be surprised to learn they will not be the only ones. Fashion-conscious Chinese shoppers are buying more traditional Scottish clothing than ever before – from tweed suits to golfing trews.
Estimates from HM Revenue & Customs indicate that exports of textiles from Scotland to China are about to hit a record high, after sales in the first nine months in 2013 reached nearly £9.7m – outstripping the total for the previous year. Scotland sells more than two and a half times more textiles to China than it did a decade ago.
According to the tweedmakers of the Isle of Harris, off Scotland’s west coast, the Chinese appear keen to wrap themselves in the history of the region.