When it comes to braving winter weather, your favourite coat – the one you’ll be reaching for, year after year – needs to check some essential boxes: beautiful quality that wears well with age, it needs to be warm, and the silhouette should withstand the test of time, from the workday commute to weekend adventures.

For us, there’s no better answer than a Donegal Tweed coat. Donegal Tweed is designed to keep you warm, and at our weaving mill, we have spent years experimenting and designing to create tweeds that are luxuriously warm, timeless and made with natural fibres. For a behind-the-scenes look at our weaving mill, look no further…

This Autumn Winter 2019, we have launched some new shapes and styles of coats for men and women, in Donegal Tweeds designed and woven at our mill in Donegal.

The Alexa coat

All new this season, the Alexa is designed to make a statement. Mid-length, with raglan shoulders and deep hand-warmer pockets, this coat is meant to be worn over anything, to anything, whether it’s work or play.

The fabric is an over-sized red and white check, inspired by the Irish Brigid’s Cross. It’s designed and woven at our weaving mill; take a look at its journey through our weaving mill, from warping to mending and final examinations above.

“This is one of my favourite Magee women’s coats, we have a similar men’s raglan sleeve coat – the Corrib which we have run in our collections for years and people often asked me can you do a women’s version! Here it is – the Alexa is a timeless coat that can be worn year after year. I just love this oversized fabric design, which showcases what our mill do best – intricate designs in beautiful natural fibres.” Charlotte Temple – Creative Director

The Emma Coat

It’s no secret that the Emma coat is one of our favourites. It’s easily styled for day or night, and can be worn over trousers and a blouse, or a dress with heels. Worn unbuttoned, the coat has a bit of movement to it that we love.

This season, the Emma coat comes in two Donegal Tweed colourways: a classic black and white herringbone, and a herringbone in mulberry and camel.

The Linsford coat

For occasions and outfits that call for a polished look, the Linsford is the perfect option. Princess seams help the Linsford sit close to the body, giving a fitted silhouette. The Nehru collar can be worn standing up, or folded down to reveal a pop of velvet in the lining.

The Moross Duffle coat

The Moross duffle coat is all new to the Magee 1866 collection this season, effortlessly fusing contemporary styling with our heritage salt-and-pepper Donegal Tweed.

Our designers have given the ever-popular duffle coat an upgrade, with a quilted brushed cotton lining, real horn toggle fasteners, and of course our own Donegal Tweed, designed and woven in Donegal.

The Corrib coat

There’s no doubt that men’s style this decade has taken a lot of inspiration from BBC’s Peaky Blinders, and the Corrib coat is the perfect answer to it. A long silhouette and raglan sleeves make it the perfect winter overcoat, from workdays to casual weekends.

The Fintra Peacoat

There are few looks as timeless as the peacoat. It’s been a staple look for men since the 1800s, bringing a nautical element to the winter wardrobe along with a sharp, tailored silhouette. Our Fintra peacoat comes in a navy herringbone Donegal Tweed, designed and woven at our mill.

Sustainability is very much part of our family values and what we do at Magee 1866.  We recognise that it is a not a straightforward concept with easy solutions. Yet, as a family we are  on board to drive a philosophy which respects our environment and how we do business in it.

We have grown up in in the wilds of Donegal with the Atlantic on our doorstep for swimming and the Bluestacks Mountains just up the road for exploring. Mum and Dad have always encouraged a deep respect for this magic landscape at home and to tread with care. This culture of care for the landscape around us means putting time and effort into make sustainable choices from planting belts of mixed forestry to eating organically, growing vegetables and cycling in and out to work. This sustainable set of lifestyle values as a family translates to what we do at work. We don’t leave them at home!

When it comes to work, for over 150 years sustainability has been inherent in our DNA. We focus on using natural fibres like wool which is renewable and biodegradable by default. Natrual fibres create fabric and clothing which is of a high quality, a far cry from the ‘throw away’ culture of fast fashion. Today, we look to harness this sustainable core and to bring its essence through our collections. When you invest in a coat like the Emma (below), you are buying a piece which is made of wool, it is made to last and to be enjoyed season after season. As a 5^th generation family business, we are not here today and gone tomorrow and neither is our clothing.

It is so encouraging to see that sustainability is now part of a more mainstream conversation around the world. I am currently in Tokyo with work and also to commiserate with Irish fans over our world cup loss…! Yesterday, I took part in the ‘Tweed Run Tokyo’.

The event was to highlight the versatility of the fabric, its sustainable virtues and to celebrate this with an emissions free pedal about the vast city. What an experience and a vibrant ensemble of bold style and panache!

I talked to the team from the beautiful United Arrows clothing store. They shared with me the Japanese concept of Mottainai which is a Japanese term to convey a ‘sense of regret concerning waste’ and a request to ‘not waste anything worthy’ from food to object. It was fascinating to hear of this old proverb, now being applied to today’s emphasis on moving away from a throw-away culture.

On my return from this provoking event, I bought a single banana…which was completely wrapped in plastic. As a world of consumers, living sustainably is undeniably complex but we hope that the spirit of Mottaninai will start to prevail!  At Magee 1866, we hope that you will join us on the journey to create and wear clothing which pays heed to the sensitivities of the environment.

We talk to Patrick Temple, CEO of Magee Weaving and Susie Page, Magee Textile Designer about what brought them to work in one of Ireland’s oldest weaving mills and where mill’s direction is for the future.

As one of the 5^th generation behind Magee 1866 and as an engineer by training, Patrick has a real affinity with the Mill. Patrick shares with us what drew him to this specific area of Magee 1866 from a young age: 

‘’When I was a child, Dad and I would often call in with hand-weavers around rural Donegal, some of the weavers lived miles away and it was always a great expedition to find our way up narrow side roads in the mountainous valleys. I loved being allowed into the ‘weaver’s shed’ where the loom sat with its well-worn seat. I was always asking dozens of questions about how the loom worked and how all of those of yarns came together to form ‘Donegal Tweed’, a fabric that has been part of the local heritage in the northwest of Ireland for centuries. Donegal Tweed is a woollen fabric, distinctive in its flecks of colour and ‘salt and pepper’ or ‘herringbone’ patterns. Donegal Tweed is what our ancestor, John Magee, started buying back in the 1860s and that heritage remains very much part of who we are today. 

I was also in and out of the Mill all the time, running about the warping machines and looms…health and safety wasn’t quite so rigorous in the early 1990s! As you might have guessed, I was the child with a lot of Lego and Meccano sets, so the literal nuts and bolts of weaving naturally appealed. Although, I didn’t go straight into the Weaving after school as Dad always encouraged us to go off and do our own thing before getting involved, so I trained as an Engineer in Trinity College, Dublin. This led to work in London, Sydney and then Scotland where my main project involved developing wave energy as a sustainable and renewable resource. In my late twenties, I was then ready to come back to the Weaving Mill. I was immediately involved in all of the complex areas around production, working through the logistics and operations of turning tonnes of yarn into thousands of meters of fabric each season. I work with highly skilled teams from the textile designers to warpers, weavers, finishers and menders on the mill floor. I feel privileged to work with people who have been connected to weaving and Magee for generations. Today, we work to bring all of this knowledge into our fabric and work with our designers to bring a contemporary edge to this wealth of heritage.’’

This means that an emphasis on design and creativity is key to us today and for our future. Susie Page, one of our lead fabric designers, came to us from Scotland, which also has a rich heritage in textile design and manufacturing.

“I wanted to do something connected with fabric design, so I came to Donegal, which is really renowned for its tweed and craft history. Donegal is such a lovely place to live and work, but due to the variety of customers we work with, we also have the opportunity to travel throughout the world. We get inspiration from what we see in shops and exhibitions in key cities such as London and New York, but here in Donegal, we also get the peace we need for design inspiration. It’s good to have that balance.”

When designing fabric, our design team consider both our rich heritage taken from our beautiful archive, in balance with new trends that we see coming through within the fashion world.

“We’re always trying to do something new and innovative”, Susie says, “while covering our classics as well. Each season we include new creative patterns and colour combinations. When working with customers, we sometimes get new ideas from them as well; they might request a colour combination that we haven’t thought of, and in exchange we often surprise our customers with traditional patterns used in different ways, in new colour palettes, which is exciting for them, too.”

For our fabric designers, the process begins with creating mood boards and deciding on the qualities of fabrics they want to develop that season, and the stories they want to tell through that fabric. Whether it’s a traditional Irish linen or a rich Donegal Tweed.

They then design the yarn that will make up the fabric. Working closely with our spinners in developing our own colours, our designers will select the finer details down to for example the nepps of colour that come through in our Donegal Tweeds.

Our designers then create ‘blankets’, which showcase different colour combinations, woven together in one fabric. Sometimes unexpected colour combinations can inspire a new direction for their collection, but usually they have planned the exact end result they would like to achieve.

The finalised designs then go into production within our weaving mill, where the fabric is warped, woven and finished by our expert team, ready to be shipped off into the world. This fabric is used then by our own Magee 1866 clothing collections, as well as also being exported internationally to other clothing brands, tailors, and more.

And finally, an all-important word on sustainability. Patrick’s experience in work with renewable energy together with the family’s inherent interest and respect for the environment means that sustainability has always been relevant to the Mill. Today, it is really front of mind. For Patrick, it is essential to continue working with natural, biodegradable and renewable fibres like wool, cashmere, and flax. These fibres weave together to make fabric which stands the test of time. 

“Magee Weaving brings you a unique fabric which is deeply imbued with the knowledge of generations of weavers, brought to life by the vibrancy of our design and by its very nature, a sustainable choice.”