12 Scottish Clothing Brands Worth Knowing (2026)
Scottish fashion starts with cloth, not with catwalks. The country built its reputation on what came off its looms: tweed from the islands, tartan from the Borders, cashmere spun in mill towns like Hawick and Elgin. Many of the names below began as factories supplying other people’s labels. Only later did they put their own name on the neck tape.
That order of events still shapes the scene today. Scottish brands tend to lead with material and manufacturing rather than with seasonal trend stories. Compared with England or Ireland, Scotland holds on to far more of its own production, which is why so many luxury houses still quietly place their knitwear orders here.
12 Scottish Clothing Brands Overview
Here’s a quick look at the Scottish brands in this guide, from mills that opened in the 1700s to designers working today. They sit alongside the rest of our clothing brands by country guides.
- Johnstons of Elgin β Cashmere and wool house running its own mills since 1797.
- Pringle of Scotland β Hawick knitwear name behind the argyle jumper and the twinset.
- Mackintosh β The raincoat that gave its name to a whole garment category.
- Hunter β Edinburgh rubber company turned global wellington boot brand.
- Begg x Co β Ayr cashmere weaver that stepped out from behind other labels.
- Kinloch Anderson β Sixth-generation Edinburgh kiltmaker with royal warrants.
- Lochcarron of Scotland β Selkirk mill weaving more than 500 authentic tartans.
- Barrie β Hawick cashmere manufacture owned by Chanel since 2012.
- EribΓ© β Melrose knitwear house reworking Fair Isle patterns in bold colour.
- Walker Slater β Edinburgh tailor built almost entirely around tweed.
- Endura β Livingston cycling brand that grew from a kitchen table to a pro peloton.
- Siobhan Mackenzie β Highland designer rebuilding the kilt for a modern wardrobe.
Scottish Clothing Brands
Johnstons of Elgin
Location: Elgin, Scotland
Founded: 1797
Price level: high
Product type: cashmere and wool knitwear
Style: classic, luxury
Website: johnstonsofelgin.com
Instagram: @johnstonsofelgin
Alexander Johnston bought a mill on the River Lossie in 1797, and the company has worked that site ever since. In 1851 it became the first Scottish firm to weave with cashmere. A second mill in Hawick, opened in 1980, added knitwear to the weaving side.
Because it still dyes, spins, weaves and finishes in house, Johnstons supplies many of the world’s luxury clothing brands as well as selling under its own name.
Pringle of Scotland
Location: Hawick, Scotland
Founded: 1815
Price level: mid-range to high
Product type: knitwear
Style: heritage, sporting
Website: pringlescotland.com
Robert Pringle started out making stockings and underwear in Hawick in 1815. The turning point came in 1934, when designer Otto Weisz introduced the twinset and pushed the geometric argyle pattern onto knitwear. The standing lion first appeared on garment labels that same year.
Those argyle diamonds later became shorthand for the golf clothing brand look, a connection the label still trades on today.
Mackintosh
Location: Cumbernauld, Scotland
Founded: 1823
Price level: high
Product type: outerwear
Style: minimal, functional
Website: mackintosh.com
Glasgow chemist Charles Macintosh patented his waterproof cloth in 1823 by sandwiching liquid rubber between two layers of cotton. The coat became so common that “mackintosh” turned into a generic word for a raincoat. Production still runs at the brand’s factory in Cumbernauld, where every seam is glued and taped by hand.
Few labels get to own a category outright, which is why its rubberised coats still serve as the benchmark other makers are measured against.
Hunter
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Founded: 1856
Price level: mid-range
Product type: rubber boots and outerwear
Style: practical, country
Website: hunterboots.com
Henry Lee Norris arrived in Scotland in 1856 with a licence to work Charles Goodyear’s rubber patent. He set up at Castle Mill in Edinburgh, and the business became the North British Rubber Company. Its factories later supplied millions of boots to soldiers in both world wars.
The Original Wellington Boot followed in 1956, and that single style still anchors the whole footwear range.
Begg x Co
Location: Ayr, Scotland
Founded: 1866
Price level: high
Product type: scarves, knitwear and throws
Style: colour-led, luxury
Website: beggxco.com
Alex Begg started weaving shawls in Paisley in 1866 and moved the mill to Ayr in 1902 for the soft water that finishes cashmere so well. For most of its history the company wove anonymously for other fashion houses. It only launched its own label, Begg x Co, around 2013.
As a result, the brand arrived fully formed, with 150 years of technical knowledge already behind the first collection.
Kinloch Anderson
Location: Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland
Founded: 1868
Price level: high
Product type: kilts and Highland dress
Style: traditional, tailored
Website: kinlochanderson.com
Kinloch Anderson has been making kilts in Edinburgh since 1868 and is now run by the sixth generation of the family. The firm has held royal warrants since 1934 and acts as custodian of the Balmoral tartan. Kilts are still cut and sewn in its own Leith factory rather than outsourced.
That in-house setup lets customers order a kilt in the shop and have it made on the premises, which is now rare in Highland wear.
Lochcarron of Scotland
Location: Selkirk, Scotland
Founded: 1892
Price level: mid-range
Product type: tartan cloth and Highland wear
Style: traditional, tartan
Website: lochcarron.co.uk
Peter Anderson set up his own weaving business in Galashiels in 1892 with three hand looms. The company later took the Lochcarron name and moved to Waverley Mill in Selkirk in 2006. It now weaves more than 500 registered tartans, as Google Arts & Culture records in its history of the mill.
That archive is why the mill supplies kiltmakers and international fashion houses from the same set of looms.
Barrie
Location: Hawick, Scotland
Founded: 1903
Price level: high
Product type: cashmere knitwear
Style: contemporary luxury
Website: barrie.com
Walter Barrie and Robert Kersel opened a hosiery factory on the banks of the Teviot in 1903. The mill went on to knit Chanel’s two-tone cardigans for decades. When its parent company collapsed in 2012, Chanel bought the business outright and kept the Hawick jobs.
Two years later Barrie launched its own label, designed in Paris and knitted in Scotland.
EribΓ©
Location: Melrose, Scotland
Founded: 1986
Price level: mid-range
Product type: knitwear
Style: Fair Isle, colourful
Website: eribe.com
Instagram: @eribe.knitwear
Rosemary EribΓ© started the label in 1986 after studying knitwear at the Scottish College of Textiles. She began exporting almost immediately, first to America and then to Japan. In 2024 the company won the King’s Award for Enterprise in the international trade category.
Its collections lean on natural yarns throughout, which puts sustainable materials at the centre rather than the edge of the range.
Walker Slater
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Founded: 1989
Price level: mid-range to high
Product type: tweed tailoring
Style: classic, countrified
Website: walkerslater.com
Paul Walker and Frances Slater founded the brand in the Highlands in 1989, supplying remote communities with hard-wearing clothing. They later moved south to Edinburgh’s Old Town, then opened shops in Glasgow and London. Most of the cloth comes from Harris Tweed weavers and smaller Borders mills.
In 2017 the company added a slimmer line called Messrs, which brought a younger customer into a very traditional category.
Endura
Location: Livingston, Scotland
Founded: 1993
Price level: mid-range
Product type: cycling apparel
Style: technical, performance
Website: endurasport.com
Jim McFarlane cut the first Endura garments on his kitchen table in Edinburgh in 1993, after his own race kit was stolen. The business moved to Livingston and kept manufacturing in Scotland while it grew. By the 2010s it was supplying the Movistar professional road team.
That mix of local production and pro-level testing is unusual for a cycling clothing brand of its size.
Siobhan Mackenzie
Location: Black Isle, Scotland
Founded: 2014
Price level: high
Product type: kilts and tailoring
Style: contemporary Highland
Website: siobhanmackenzie.com
Siobhan Mackenzie launched her label five days after graduating in 2014, aged 21. She had trained in traditional kiltmaking during an internship, then started reworking the construction. Her clan roots on the Black Isle still drive most of the collections.
She has since dressed Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games and sold through Bergdorf Goodman in New York.
Scotland’s textile map runs far wider than twelve names, especially across Hawick and the Outer Hebrides. A handful more Scottish makers worth adding to your list follow below.
Other Notable Scottish Clothing Brands
- Hawico β Hawick cashmere house trading from its Duke Street mill since 1874.
- Lyle & Scott β Knitwear name founded in Hawick in 1874, now known for its golden eagle.
- Harris Tweed Hebrides β Outer Hebrides mill whose handwoven cloth supplies brands worldwide.
- Scott & Charters β Hawick cashmere knitter, part of the Begg x Co group since 2020.
- Todd & Duncan β Kinross spinner behind much of the cashmere yarn used in Scotland.
- James Pringle Weavers β Tartan and tweed retailer trading under a name dating to 1789.
Frequently Asked Questions about Scottish Clothing Brands
Pringle of Scotland and Hunter are the most widely recognised names internationally. Johnstons of Elgin is better known inside the industry, since it supplies cashmere and wool to many luxury houses.
Cashmere, tweed, tartan and knitwear. The Borders town of Hawick has been the centre of Scottish knitwear since the late 1700s, while Harris Tweed comes from the Outer Hebrides.
Many are. Johnstons of Elgin, Barrie, Lochcarron, Kinloch Anderson and Mackintosh all still manufacture in Scotland. Others moved most production abroad, so it is worth checking the label rather than the brand name.
Tartan is a pattern of crossing coloured stripes, traditionally tied to clans and registered by design. Tweed is a fabric type: a rough, woven wool cloth, often in herringbone or check, that is defined by its construction rather than its pattern.
