The House of Barrie
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Founded in 1903 in the Borders town of Hawick,

Barrie is one of the oldest cashmere knitwear manufactures in Scotland. In 2012, Barrie joined the prestigious circle of the Chanel Métiers d’Art houses.

The Barrie label, launched in 2014, stands out by its constant search for technical innovation and its contemporary vision, combined with the savoir-faire of high-end cashmere. Conceived by artistic director Augustin Dol-Maillot, the collections bring together creativity, heritage and attention to detail.

History
Scottish landscapes are as scenic as the regional weather can be challenging.

With their lives often dependent on the land and the sea, locals have relied for centuries on the warmth and protection of woolen garments, whose thickness and natural oils shield them from the harsh elements.

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With their lives often dependent on the land and the sea, locals have relied for centuries on the warmth and protection of woolen garments, whose thickness and natural oils shield them from the harsh elements.

From the 18th Century onwards, weaving and knitting became Scottish cottage industries whose excellence soon gained international renown. When cashmere reached European shores, Scotland became the natural focus of expertise for the manufacture of yarn and garments in this fine material. In the town of Hawick, on the banks of the river Teviot, the Barrie manufacture opened in 1903 and rapidly developed its savoir-faire to become a reference in the field. In 2012, long-standing client Chanel acquired Barrie. Two years later, the house’s own label was launched to showcase its heritage and craftsmanship.

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1903
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Artistic Director
Augustin
Dol-Maillot
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Augustin Dol-Maillot was named artistic director of Barrie’s Parisian studio in 2018.

Born in 1989, having worked at Chanel with both Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard, he uses a creative process that is both rich and innovative, looking to the history of fashion to find shapes and influences that he mixes with classic knitwear codes. For Augustin Dol-Maillot, this vision is also a timeless one: from one season to another, he weaves a permanent story, inspired both by Scottish landscapes and Anglo-Saxon culture. Barrie garments are designed to work together in the long run, becoming much-loved mainstays of an enduring, timeless wardrobe. 

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Savoir-Faire

Tradition meets technology within the walls of Barrie’s Hawick manufacture. 70-year-old Bentley Cotton looms run alongside high-tech Shima Seiki machines, dedicated to solving the complex challenges of the intricate Barrie designs. The human hand and eye remain essential, however: Barrie is the only manufacture in the world which still judges the washing of each garment individually, and every detail of the assembly process is done by hand.


Three separate verification steps are required for a piece to be deemed suitable to leave the factory. To ensure the transmission of such craftsmanship, Barrie counts its own training school, closely linked to the colleges and universities in the area. The manufacture also has a Level 1 GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification, which guarantees complete respect for the environment at every level of the production and transformation process.

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