Lindsay Girvan: The Vintage Years

Lindsay Girvan creates knitwear with purpose - a Shepherd’s Wardrobe, designed to be worn, lived in, and passed down. Each piece is made entirely at Bonnytoun Farm in Scotland, crafted from the undyed wool of Lindsay’s own Shetland flock. Rooted in heritage, practicality, and craftsmanship, Future Vintage is woven with the land itself, connecting flock, maker, and wearer in a story of tradition and longevity.

Lindsay Girvan

Here on Selvedge Stories, Lindsay shares more about her creative process:

The Vintage Years: How Nature Writes Our Shetland Vintage

There is something uniquely captivating about watching a textile come to life. Whether it’s the steady looping of stitches forming row after row as a jumper begins to take its shape, or the unfurling of embroidery, where different coloured threads slowly reveal the sewer’s intended pattern. It feels like a certain kind of magic. An art form: the transformation of a vision into reality, something that once existed only as an idea, intangible and incomplete.

That process holds true for Future Vintage. Designs begin on paper, sometimes on the back of envelopes, often scattered across the floor of my 200-year-old cottage atelier at Bonnytoun Farm. In the evolution from pattern to piece, the next stage is sampling, before the time-consuming dance of testing, adjustment, testing, adjustment. Followed by alterations, as many as necessary – as long as a piece of string – before the garment finally emerges.

Reels of Future Vintage Yarn

It's a real labour of love. But the true beginning of our story starts much earlier. Long before putting pen to paper, feeling the flow of fabric or the spin of that year’s yarn. When working with natural fibres like pure Shetland wool, the journey from concept to closet doesn’t begin with a pattern, a thread, or any workable material at all. It begins with something alive - something real, breathing, and of course, something that is yet to be born...

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Image Credits:

Lead Image: Spey Vest Vintage 24/5

All images courtesy of Lindsay Girvan Future Vintage