FQR Cannes Highland Special Special
Country Pursuit of Style Niels van Rooyen pinpoints the essence of Holland & Holland and reveals its new house tweed
I
worked at Holland & Holland for 22 years and then left for a brief period when the focus shifted too much to fashion. Now I’ve returned, and we have shifted back to what is at the heart of the company – not fashion, but authentic country living. To fulfil this country lifestyle, I wanted to create items for our clients to wear before a shoot, during a shoot (technical gear), and then after the shoot. This way, Im ag e Co the total lifestyle is encapsulated ur in our collection. I wanted te sy of Ho the collection to be the lla nd right mix of traditional an d and Ho classicism lla nd English humour. It had to be English prep,
trendy in some ways, but elegant and quirky in other ways – really all about that beautiful English twist. To go along with this, we decided to bring our manufacturing back to England. British craftsmanship is a cornerstone of what we do and, very sadly, it has been dying out in England. As the demand for goods increases, companies have decided to move abroad where it is cheaper to build bigger and bigger factories. Holland & Holland has opened its doors again to authentic British craftsmanship, both in our ready-to-wear and bespoke collections. One way we are doing this is by working with 75 different craftswomen all over England who are knitting each and every one of our shooting stockings by hand, especially for us. It takes one lady approximately four days to complete. This makes each pair very authentic and of top quality. We have also established our new house tweed. The idea of passing things on from one generation to the next has always been central to British culture. While people still do this with things such as watches, it has, sadly, died out for clothing. We hope to bring it back with our house tweed. Our tweed represents many things that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Originally, the beaters wore gamekeeper’s tweed during a shoot because it was inexpensive and durable. Now estate owners want to wear it because it is traditional and practical, and is in harmony with the colours of the countryside. We also want the house tweed to pass down a story. Stories and the ideas behind our collection are just as important as the objects
themselves. In 1845, Mr Holland, founder of our company, was photographed wearing his tweed. It’s waterproof, lined, pressed nailhead tweed, woven just for us. For the ladies, we make it with a lilac overcheck as well. And even here, the lilac tells the story of the heather on the Scottish moors, where many of our clients love to shoot. Everything here must, and does, have a story to share. I also took a look at our collections over the years and realised that we’d never had a signature piece. So I looked at the gun, which is, has been, and always will be my main source of inspiration, and found the diamond and checkering on the grips of the guns to be beautiful. They are very tactile, practical – and yet so elegant. So I took it a step further and put it on crystal, on scarves, on ties, and onto small bridle leather goods. Next I plan to put it on our bridle-leather luggage set. If you know the diamond and checkering, then you will know that it is from Holland & Holland – otherwise, you don’t need to know. It is about craftsmanship, and is unique to Holland & Holland. It is the country though, that is central to the Holland & Holland way of life. It is a wonderful, non-stop world, full of time spent in nature with good friends, enjoying country pursuits. It is also a focused lifestyle, focused on nature conservation, appreciating everything the country has to offer, and enjoying that lovely English quirkiness I mentioned earlier, all the while holding on to the traditions. I really want to bring back this sense of tradition to our lives and to the lives of our clients. I think we’ve lost so much of it. You get people going to the opera now in jeans and a T-shirt, which just kills me – it really is shocking. The shooting world is a very calm one, a very traditional one, so everything is handed down from father to son and even the discipline and the notion of what it means to really be a gentleman remains in the family. And in the end, that’s what really matters. Niels van Rooyen is the Creative Director of Holland & Holland
Nessie is the mother of invention
Nicholas Chandor tells of his ancestors’ unique approaches to Hibernian boredom…
It seems to me that, with a few notable exceptions, the idle rich have lost their way – fun is now too easy to have, there are too many things at their well-manicured fingertips, and not enough time in which to do them. Oh, how things have changed! The whole point of Scotland – well, at least the 19th century – was for the visiting English to get bored, and not just short-term bored, but stupefyingly, maddeningly bored. The highlight of the week could be a walk, an endless game of cards or, heavens above, somebody catching a fish! My four-times-great-grandfather Squire Bankes had obviously reached a new level of boredom when he decided to raise the bar on the size of fish one should catch. He thought it would be rather good fun to have a go at catching the Loch Ness Monster – if nothing else, it would kill a bit of time. Rather than using the conventional methods of catching monsters (oversized rod and line etc), he hit upon the idea of trying to poison it. After a brief trip to Manchester he managed to secure a dozen barges, which he filled with quick
Hogmanay in The Highlands is just the ticket, says Charlie Gladstone
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Hurrah For Hogmanay www.finchsquarterly.com Winter 2010
nyone who has as much as considered a trip to Scotland has thought that, perhaps, Hogmanay might be a good time to visit. The Scots take New Year’s Eve seriously – so seriously that they have two public holidays in its wake. One day will not cure the hangover of a really big night out. Hogmanay in Edinburgh is a Big Event. Many local residents flee the city as revellers from across the globe descend on Princes Street. In order to control numbers – a few years ago nearly half a million people descended on the city and chaos ensued – admittance to the centre of the city is by ticket only and over 100,000 people turn up each year. So, if watching fireworks whilst hugging your friends and posing for photos for Facebook in the company of 99,999 others is your idea of fun, you know what to do. But apply for tickets soon; it is very popular. A couple of years ago, a cunning friend of ours – from Glasgow, no less – saw an opportunity in this gathering and headed to Edinburgh with a dozen large boxes of those glowsticks that you wave around whilst posing for Facebook. He set up a stall just outside the city centre and – hey presto! – sold the lot by midnight. He was back in Glasgow with a rucksack full of cash in time for bed. Our Hogmanay, in The Highlands, is a little less crowded. It’s true that Scotland exerts a magnetic pull at the end of the year, and our house is always brimming with friends of all ages.
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www.finchsquarterly.com Winter 2010