Carruthers Associates & The Woolmark Company

About the project

Borders-based textile design consultancy, Carruthers Associates invited McAteer Photo to work with them on a legacy project for their client, The Woolmark Company: the global authority on wool.

Sheila-Mary and Hamish Carruthers have both worked in the textile industry for nearly 50 years and have a passion for sharing their knowledge with future generations of makers and designers. This project for The Woolmark Company will take the shape of educational modules written by Carruthers Associates and illustrated using McAteer Photo still images and videos.

The McAteer team decamped to the Borders and over the course of five days photographed at various locations: the Carruthers design studio, The Rig; leading cashmere and woollen manufacturers, Johnstons of Elgin in Hawick and Collingwood-Norris studios in Galashiels.

Product photography of Shelia-Mary’s extensive designer woollens collection took place at The Rig to show full garment and detail shots of seams, trims, finishes, buttons and embroidery to help explain the multitude of ways that a garment can be designed, created and finished.

Photography and filming of the fully fashioned knitting process from design to yarn to final garment took place at luxury woollen and cashmere manufacturers, Johnstons of Elgin. Everyone from John the factory manager to the master craftspeople and designers were incredibly welcoming and eager to help ensure we didn’t miss a thing. Their patience in repeating or halting a process made an intense shoot easier to manage.

And finally we photographed and filmed at the studio of luxury knitwear design company Collingwood-Norris to show the v-bed knitting process and Swiss darning.

The resultant collection of images will help Carruthers and The Woolmark Company convey invaluable knowledge to textiles students the world over.

See more of our product shots here.

See some behind the scenes shots here.