Seminar and Display: Interweaving Threads - Scotland and Norway through Dress, Custom Lane, Edinburgh

Image from the Edinburgh Kiltmakers Academy.

Interweaving: Scotland and Norway through Dress is a project that brings together Norwegian and Scottish specialists working in the fields of textile and dress (makers, craftspeople, academics, designers, arts professionals). It intends to strengthen existing Norwegian and Scottish expertise in the sector and lead to exchanges in the field of research in both the UK and Norway. The project, of which this seminar in October 2026 was part, coincidentally falls approximately 25 years after the touring exhibition on Norwegian folk dress and Bunader, Crowns and Roses, which opened at the National Museum of Scotland. While the former was a display of the dress itself, this new project further questions the significance of dress, craftmanship and identity at a time when questions – and tensions - around fast fashion and sustainability, AI, multiculturalism, diversity, gender, global conflict and globalisation have significantly impacted the way in which Norwegians as well as Scots look at traditional and historic dress, use it, make it and preserve it.

When it comes to dress, textiles and heritage in Scotland and Norway, presentations held at Custom Lane in October 2025 sought to unearth what might unite and divide wearers and makers. Both Scottish and Norwegian dress and textiles are regional, are rooted in local folklore and are a visual language with either obvious or hidden messages. They are connected to the landscape, farming and rural topography, may be made highly skilled workers and influenced by political or social contexts, and may be used for dancing and ceremonies – be that a christening or wedding. They are handed down through generations, are valuable and expensive. But, in more recent times, so too are they made abroad, produced by a machine, detached from their original source and makers: in both Norway and in Scotland we find that skills and craftmanship are being lost and forgotten.

And yet, there are significant differences. Tartan and Scottish dress remain connected to conflict, war, divisions, clans and the military. Aspects of Scottish dress, such as the kilt, tartan and sporran have become items of fashion, featured on the catwalk by some of the biggest fashion houses operating today. This is not necessarily the same for Norwegian dress, which remains complicated and a largely misunderstood or unknown phenomenon outside of Scandinavia. Additionally, kilts are predominantly linked to men, whereas the Bunad is associated with women. Norwegian dress is highly intricate – involving white headdresses, colourful embroidery, silver jewellery and an array of bodice, skirt and shirt styles whose design immediately tell us about regional practices, historic trade routes, international fashions, farming practices and a woman’s marital status. A dress from Setesdal, for instance, will be discernibly different to that from Telemark or Hardanger.

Friday 24th October | Presentations and Panel Discussions

09:30 – 10:00 – Tea and Coffee

10:00 - 12 noon - Presentations on Historic and Contemporary use of Dress in Scotland and in Norway – past and present. Followed by presentations on two recent exhibitions in Norway and in Scotland that looked at dress, weaving and cloth: Skakke Folkedrakter / Queer Folk Dress at the National Museum Norway and other venues, and the Tartan Exhibition at the V&A Dundee. The morning will finish with a presentation by the Textile Designer, Alex Marshall Clark.

10:00 – 10.10 - Camilla Rossing, Kitty Corbet Milward, Project Directors – Introductions

10:10 – 10.30 – Pernille Olstad, Edinburgh Kiltmakers Academy - Historic and Contemporary Dress in Scotland

10:30 – 10:50 – Camilla Rossing, Norwegian Institute of Folk Costumes - Historic and Contemporary Dress in Norway

BREAK FOR 10 MINS

11:00 – 11.20 – Maja Mosum, Randsfjord Museum Norway – Queer Folk Dress Exhibition at the National Museum Norway and now touring Norway

11.20 – 11:40 – Kirsty Hassard, V&A Dundee – Tartan Exhibition at the V&A Dundee

11:40 – 12:00 - Alex Marshall Clark, Textile Designer – Designs and Inspirations

LUNCH FROM 12:00 – 13:00

13:00 – 14:30: Panel discission with Key Speakers. Questions to include those touching on heritage, identity and belonging, sustainability and fashion. Open to the floor for questions, comments, ideas.