A really exciting addition to our Home Interiors Collection, just in time for Christmas gifting, Irish Wool throws have arrived.
A truly sustainable choice crafted in 100% Irish wool, this launch represents a milestone as the first home interiors pieces in the Magee 1866 X Irish Wool collection.
At Magee 1866, we are committed to developing and using Irish Wool in our textiles. Over the past number of years, we have been working closely with Donegal Yarns, a local yarn supplier just up the road in Kilcar, and farmers to source finer wool from Irish sheep to re-ignite positivity around this fantastic and ‘local’ raw material.
The wool is then spun by Donegal Yarns, ready to be woven into fabric at our mill in Donegal Town where we have been weaving for five generations and over 150 years.
Designed, woven and finished at our mill in a contemporary oversized houndstooth pattern, the Irish Wool throw is available in two colours and finished with thick tasselled fringing. The perfect piece to showcase this unique fabric.
This is a truly sustainable home accessory that is made with longevity in mind.
In a continuation of our commitment to developing Irish wool for use in our textiles, we are proud to present the latest additions to the Magee 1866 X Irish Wool collection.
At Magee 1866, we are part of a wider movement to develop and use Irish Wool in our textiles. We have been working with Donegal Yarns, a local yarn supplier just up the road in Kilcar on sourcing wool from Irish farms across the country.
Patrick Temple, CEO of Magee Weaving has also teamed up with sheep farmer James Lorinko to develop fine Irish Wool on the family farm at Rathforker, just outside Donegal Town and with fields overlooking the Atlantic.
The wool is then spun by Donegal Yarns and designed and woven into fabric at our Mill in Donegal Town. The tweed is washed in the peaty waters of the River Eske resulting in a beautifully soft finish.
This season sees three new styles in Irish Wool.
The Irish Wool Jessicais a classic swing coat in a bold, oversized charcoal, red and white check, the perfect style for winter race meets or days outdoors.
The Irish Wool Millyis an unlined, unstructured blazer style jacket in a charcoal and red houndstooth Donegal Tweed. This easy to wear piece will quickly become your new go-to jacket.
The first men’s piece to launch in the Magee 1866 X Irish Wool Collection is the Erne. A bestselling style, this short, contemporary Donegal Tweed overcoat is woven in a rich red, green, grey and navy check and is perfect for layering over suits and jackets. Coming soon…
Introducing the Magee 1866 Autumn/Winter 2021 Collection – ‘Home’
The inspiration behind the Magee 1866 Autumn/Winter 2021 collection is ‘Home’ – home being Co. Donegal where we have been designing, weaving and tailoring luxurious fabrics for five generations.
Design Director, and 5th generation family member, Charlotte Temple reflects.
“Working on this collection in 2020, in the depths of a global pandemic, has made us appreciate where we live even more than ever. The various lockdowns, in a way, forced a new familiarity with our immediate surroundings and offered a new opportunity to observe and engage with the landscape. Details one would gloss over in the hustle and bustle of regular life came into sharp focus, the bright red autumn berry peeping through the hedgerows, the changing colour of bracken on the hills – summer greens to a burnt rust, the reflection of the sun on the sea in the early morning light.”
“These are the same landscapes that have inspired our tweeds for decades. This collection embraces our own natural fibre fabrics, designed and woven at our mill in Donegal Town. We have delved into our archives and reinvigorated the classics. Herringbones – an age-old pattern inspired by fish bones and Salt & Pepper, a simple yet intricate pattern rich with colourful flecks – the true Donegal Tweed.”
Classic patterns sit beside bold and oversized checks in this collection with the colour pallet inspired by the sea and land. Sea blues, mossy greens, earthy oats, peaty browns are accented by the colours of local flora like gorse, fuchsia, blackberry, moss and montbretia that were historically used to create the colourful speckles synonymous with Donegal Tweeds.
The Men’s outerwear stands out as an exclusive selection of Donegal Tweed overcoats, classic wool city coats and quilted jackets, one of the highlights being the new Brosna coat, an oversized tweed belted overcoat in a statement plaid check. In a continuation of the commitment to developing Irish wool for use in their textiles – with wool sourced from Irish sheep and spun and woven in Donegal – the latest addition to the Magee 1866 X Irish Wool collection is the Irish Wool Erne, a short, contemporary Donegal Tweed overcoat in a rich red, green, grey and navy check.
A new addition to the range of knitwear is a luxurious cotton cashmere blend in four styles and four timeless colours. Lightweight and soft, these pieces pair beautifully with one of the Donegal Tweed jackets or Gilets in the collection. The Pettigo ribbed crew neck, a two-tone contemporary style, makes a statement.
Casual styles like the Corlea grandfather collar shirt in the Liberty of London print “Ernest’s Adventure” sit alongside Handwoven Donegal Tweed jackets and our signature, sophisticated suits with a focus on fit and comfort.
Two new styles join the women’s outerwear collection- “The Josie” is a contemporary short Donegal Tweed coat in a warm red herringbone, a bright and easy to wear number for your winter wardrobe.
In a continuation of the commitment to developing Irish wool for use in our textiles – with wool sourced from Irish sheep and spun and woven in Donegal – the second new style is the “Irish Wool Jessica”, a classic swing coat in a timeless red plaid, the perfect style for winter race meets or days outdoors. Classic styles like the Emma, Linsfort and Grace, a long, hacking style coat, return in new tweeds, designed and woven in Donegal.
This season, preppy short tweed jackets and printed shirts are complemented by a beautiful knitwear collection featuring luxurious cashmere blends and chunky Donegal handknits. Cashmere/merino knits, made in Scotland, offer cloud-like softness in three different styles – crewneck, funnel neck and a casual Fair Isle. Light enough to style under a Donegal Tweed Jacket, these luxurious, versatile pieces are designed to seamlessly integrate into your wardrobe and keep you cozy on long country walks.
One of the oldest fabrics in the world, the tradition and history of weaving linen in Ireland goes back hundreds of years.
It is made from the flax plant, which is a really versatile crop that’s cultivated for yarn and food (flax is where linseed comes from).
Linen is a sustainable, natural material, known for its cool, fresh properties. A staple for the summer season. It’s easy to dress up or down, taking you from workdays and warm-weather weddings to casual weekend adventures.
At our mill in Donegal, we design and weave linen namely for tailored garments – suits and blazers and for our range of fabrics by the metre. Suitable for use in apparel and home furnishing projects, this season’s Limited Edition collection features a muted pallet of soft, light colours in glen checks and herringbone weaves.
For shirting, we look to our friends Baird McNutt, another long-established mill in the north of Ireland. A timeless hopsack linen is used in our women’s Ella tunics and beautifully tailored men’s shirts. These are truly investment pieces designed and made to last.
Another long-established brand, founded in the 19th Century like us, Liberty of London have brought unique design and beautiful fabrics to the world since 1875.
We love working with the iconic Liberty of London and have been incorporating their original prints into our collections since the late 1990’s.
Luxury fabrics are at the heart of what we do at Magee 1866 with our own tweeds and linens, which we design and weave at our mill in Donegal, so it makes sense that we would look to Liberty of London to collaborate.
This season, Liberty of London prints complement the collection with watercolour and hand-painted florals, providing pops of unexpected summer colour in Liberty’s signature Tana Lawn™ cotton. A masterpiece of fabric technology, this fine cotton has a distinctive hand-feel and translucent, silk-like softness.
Highlights include the Hannah shirt in ‘Felda’, a dreamy watercolour print of meadow flowers, available in a delicate blue or soft pink.
Equally suited to the beach or weekend wear, the casual Ella Tunic brings summer vibrancy with the colourful prints ‘Oleander’– a tropical pink and green floral – and ‘Jungle Trip’ – a layered tangle of flowers and foliage in blues and yellows.
Introducing the Magee 1866 Summer 2021 Collection ‘Halcyon Days’.
Summer always brings forth feelings of nostalgia for carefree days gone by, long sunny afternoons spent outdoors, the halcyon days of our youth. This year we harnessed this calm nostalgia and used it as inspiration for our Summer 2021 collection.
Living in Donegal we are spoiled with stunning landscapes – wonderous beaches and magical forests. In this collection we are capturing the freedom of the outdoors with bright colours combined with misty shades in our natural fibre fabrics, designed and woven at our mill.
Our men’s collection evokes an effortless calm with suave silk blends and casual Irish linens. This collection pays reverence to the nature we enjoy on our doorstep through colour, texture and the celebration of our own beautiful fabrics sustainably woven in Donegal.
Sage and mossy greens are accented with earthy tones in our stand-out silk and cotton blend herringbone Liffey Jacket, a lightweight alternative to Donegal Tweed. Our popular Cavan Gilet returns in a silk blend oceanic blue and pairs beautifully with a casual linen shirt for effortless summer style.
Lightweight tweeds are complimented by soft casual shirts in fun vintage prints and sun kissed hues. Combined with our range of bright cotton knits, this is an easy to wear collection with lots of personality.
Our blushingwomen’s Collection is inspired by the fragile beauty of woodland flowers and sun-bleached shades. A world in dreamy soft focus.
Key pieces include the Emma Coat in two misty shades of blue and grey, the first pieces in our new Magee 1866 X Irish Wool collection that sees wool sourced, spun, designed and woven in Ireland.
The longline Moyne Silk Blend Jacket in sky blue herringbone, offers a confident, tailored look when styled with the matching Tina Trousers. This suit looks just as put together paired with heels or crisp white trainers.
Liberty of London prints compliment the collection with watercolour and hand-painted florals, providing pops of unexpected summer colour in Liberty’s signature Tana Lawn Cotton.
Sustainability is at the heart of what we do at Magee 1866, and we are constantly inspired by the beautiful landscape that surrounds Donegal. Irish linen features heavily throughout the collection, in our range of men’s shirts as well as the fabrics woven at our mill in Donegal.
Irish sheep are synonymous with our landscape, but are not known for their soft wool. At Magee 1866 we are part of a wider movement to develop Irish Wool for use in fine textiles and have been working closely with our yarn supplier, Donegal Yarns, on an exciting journey to introduce Irish Wool into our collections.
This all began in 2016 with Patrick Temple, CEO of Magee Weaving, having a conversation with Chris Weiner of Donegal Yarns. It was the 150th anniversary of the company, and Patrick had been reviewing the extensive weaving archives and noted that in the past, Irish wool had a strong presence in our collections.
With that, the idea was born to work together to encourage Irish farmers to breed sheep for their wool.
Wool as a natural fibre has been used in textiles for centuries. Magee was founded on handwoven tweed in the 1800’s. This hardwearing, coarse fabric was handwoven across Donegal by part-time fishermen and farmers as the perfect fabric for dissipating the damp and cold weather, so often found in North-west Ireland, a far cry from the luxurious cloths being produced today.
Our ethos as a company has always been slow fashion and to use natural fibres, with the global drive towards a more sustainable future this has never been more relevant. Wool encompasses this aim perfectly – it is natural, biodegradable, recyclable and renewable.
Due to our climate, wool from Irish sheep traditionally has a rougher handle (the fibres are shorter) than their southern hemisphere counterparts and is more often used in carpeting than in clothing, but unfortunately the demand in recent years for this product has been steadily declining.
In Ireland sheep are bred for their milk and meat. There are over 2.5 million sheep here and their wool is currently classified as ‘waste’ with little to no value. Over the last year spinners, weavers and designers are looking to new ways to use this natural product and re-classify its use in order to give it value and properly develop the end use.
Today, we are working closely with farmers and Donegal Yarns to source finer wool from Irish sheep to re-ignite positivity around this fantastic and ‘local’ raw material. The wool is sourced from across Ireland and spun in Kilcar, ready to be designed and woven into luxurious fabrics at our mill in Donegal Town.
For Spring Summer 2021 the Emma Coat is our first piece to showcase Irish Wool. This contemporary, oversized coat with patch pockets is available in two soft, misty colours. Our design team have drawn inspiration from our natural surroundings in Donegal for this unique fabric – blue-grey skies, the sea, rocks and lichen. Launching in Spring (more associated with lighter-weight fabrics) we wanted to create colours and a piece that would work all year round in a wool – a soft grey & cream and blue & grey.
We have been weaving for 5 generations, like us, Irish Wool is not here today and gone tomorrow. We are in this for the long haul, and look forward to making Irish Wool a part of our future across our collections.
We are excited to announce the introduction of Irish Wool in our collections. A project very close to our hearts and something that has been in the pipeline for some time.
At Magee 1866 we are part of the wider movement towards a more sustainable future and we are committed to developing and using Irish Wool in our collections. We are working with Donegal Yarns, a local yarn supplier beside us in Kilcar, on sourcing wool from Irish farms across the country.
The raw wool is then spun by Donegal Yarns into fine yarn and designed and woven into luxury cloth at our Mill in Donegal Town.
Our commitment doesn’t end there, Patrick Temple, CEO of Magee Weaving, and fifth generation family member, has also teamed up with sheep farmer James Lorinyenko to develop fine Irish Wool on the family farm at Rathforker, just outside Donegal Town with fields overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
For Spring Summer 2021 the Emma Coat is our first piece to showcase Irish Wool. A contemporary, oversized coat with patch pockets. Available in two soft, misty colours – inspired by Donegal skies, the sea, stone walls and lichen. A blue & grey and grey & cream Donegal tweed. We hope you will love these pieces as much as we do.
Irish Wool is not here today and gone tomorrow, we are in for the long haul and this movement will evolve season after season through our collections. Keep an eye out for more in our AW21 collection.
While we have all been spending a lot more time at home over the last year, we have been working behind the scenes on our Interiors Collection, which is made in Ireland.
Our beautiful range of throws, accessories and fabrics are designed and woven in our mill in Donegal Town and will add the perfect Spring refresh to your interiors. Drawing on the land and seascapes that surround us in Donegal, our experienced in-house design team work closely together, carefully selecting appropriate yarns and colours for each piece.
Throws
The two latest additions are our Brigid’s Cross and Wigwam Throws.
The Brigid’s Cross Throw – The intricate design of this 100% wool throw is inspired by the iconic Saint Brigid’s Cross. Synonymous with the beginning of Spring, this well-known symbol in Irish heritage is presented here in a rich textured weave combining luxurious shades of blue, grey and unexpected flecks of colour inspired by the Donegal coast. Also available in a rich brown combination, a reflection of the rugged landscapes of the north-west.
Wigwam Throw – Bright, fresh colours for spring. Our energising range of Wigwam Throws make a statement. The eye-catching geometric design in 100% lambswool creates a rich texture, highlighting the vibrant tones and enhancing the colourful Donegal flecks. With nearly every colour of the rainbow represented, you will find a throw to compliment your interior scheme.
Cushions
One of the easiest ways to refresh your interiors is with accessories. Our selection of tweed cushions, available in lambswool or a lush cashmere lambswool blend, come in neutral earth tones. The classic and delicate herringbone Donegal tweed is woven at our mill and the cushions are filled with a luxurious duck down filling.
Furnishing Fabrics
Our collection oftweed by the metre offers endless opportunity for upholstery, drapery or soft furnishings. From our core range of signature Donegal Tweeds to special, limited edition collections, these furnishing specific fabrics are designed to last, and provide a sustainable option perfect for commercial or domestic projects.
Green is the colour perhaps most synonymous with Ireland – our fields and hedgerows, leafy green trees and mossy banks. It’s these unique landscapes that inspire our designers when creating our fabrics and collections.
To mark St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve collected some of our favourite green pieces.
Handwoven Salt & Pepper Donegal Tweed Jacket
A true Donegal Tweed, the salt & pepper weave is rich in colourful flecks, inspired by the flora and fauna found in the Northwest of Ireland. Handwoven in Donegal, this timeless green jacket is part of a long history of handweaving in Ireland, the foundation of our fifth-generation family business and a traditional and skilled craft we are proud to support.
The colour green is really versatile, you only need to look at a bunch of flowers to see that there is barely a shade it doesn’t compliment! Our Lunnaigh Lambswool V-Neck Jumper will integrate seamlessly into your wardrobe.
These books are Made in Ireland with tweed designed and woven at our mill, this capsule collection of tweed notebooks speak to Ireland’s long literary tradition. Who knows, a future great novel or poem might be being penned in one as we speak!
The vibrant green of this Wigwam Throw, designed and woven at our mill on the banks of the River Eske, brings this intricate geometric pattern to life. Dappled with colourful Donegal flecks, this throw will add a touch of spring to your interiors.
A staple of the Magee 1866 collection, the iconic tweed flat cap is one of our most popular pieces. A must-have accessory, these timeless hats span generations.
