Harley of Scotland ®

Making a garment
The key to our success is retaining the original quality of a hand-crafted garment. There are multiple procedures involved in the manufacturing process, and most are carried out by hand. Harley of Scotland's reputation of manufacturing the highest quality knitwear in the world is earned by conducting quality checks at each stage in the production cycle.

Knitting
A traditional knit garment is made up of several individual panels. Each individual knitted panel is checked by hand to ensure that it meets with our standards. We are the pioneering Scottish manufacturer to offer both traditional fully fashioned and seamless knitwear. Using the revolutionary ‘seamless’ production technique, which we now have 17 years of experience in, each garment is knitted in a single unit. This has the hugely desirable outcome of eliminating the need for joining of components, producing a sleeker, and often better fitting garment, while simultaneously eliminating wool waste.

Milling
The yarn in the knitted panels is still ‘greasy’ at this stage, and in fully fashioned garments these panels are linked together to create the basic body ‘shape’. Washing garments in the North East of Scotland’s particular quality of soft water achieves the uniquely luxurious ‘handle’ of a Harley of Scotland garment which is very difficult to replicate. This traditional skill of milling garments is passed from generation to generation.

Clean make-up
The washed garment passes through the clean make-up area where a number of highly skilled processes are carried out. Perfecting the time-honored skills in garment make-up can take up to 18 months. Among these is the ‘Mathbirk’ process, which is a combined linking and over locking method to bind garment panels together, resulting in a strong tensile seamed garment.

French-pressing and finishing
Each garment is French-pressed with the greatest of care, ironed, labelled, checked and packed ready for delivery to our customers. It is absolutely vital to us that these completed garments are perfect, and this is achieved by employing an experienced, competent and dedicated workforce.