Since starting her brand fresh out of university, Black Isle fashion designer Siobhan Mackenzie has become synonymous with her tartan creations.
Over the last nine years, Siobhan’s designs and kilts have been displayed in collaborations with Coarunn Ginn, LVMH group and at the Commonwealth Games for Team Scotland.
They have even been flaunted by stars like Justin Bieber and Judy Murray.
However, Siobhan said it was not tartan that first drew her eye to fashion but rather a bag full of sequins.
Growing up in the Black Isle, Siobhan used to watch her great granny, a professional seamstress, at work sewing the “most amazing” sequins and beadwork onto jumpers.
She would then give Siobhan bags of sequins to go home with.
These bags inspired Siobhan to draw and create her own designs and at 10 years old, she knew she had found her calling.
Designs inspired by family roots
At age 13, Siobhan bought her first sewing machine and four years later, she moved to Glasgow to study fashion design and production.
When she was given her own design brief in the final year, she decided to look into her Highland roots.
She said: “I come from a really big, close-knit family who have always inspired me so I wanted to look into my Highland heritage.
“My dad is a child of 10 and my mum is a child of five. Everybody lives in really close proximity so you just walk in and out of each other’s houses.
“My aunty actually used to hire the local town hall to do Christmas dinner because there was no way to fit everyone into a house.
“My collection was called To Clan Mackenzie. It was supposed to be thought-provoking and develop something different.
“So I trained in traditional kilt-making and started experimenting with a different technique to redefine tradition.”
Once people saw her designs, requests started to come in to buy them so she set up her named brand.
Mental health crisis in the Highlands
These days, the multi-award-winning designer splits her time between Glasgow and the Black Isle.
She enjoys being back near family and the beautiful beaches and walks but admitted the A9 was a definite downside.
Like many who use the notorious road, she said she would like to see it dualled to help lessen the danger and also encourage more people to run businesses from the Highlands.
However, dualling the A9 is not the only cause close to her heart.
Siobhan has recently become an ambassador for mental health charity Mikeysline.
She will be making her first appearance with the organisation for their Burns Supper in January alongside Hollywood star Karen Gillan, football legends John Robertson and Stephen Ferguson, and businessman and former Olympian Ewan MacDonald.
“I’m really happy to start to join forces with them,” she said.
“I’m from the Highlands, born and raised here and obviously, the majority of the work Mikeysline do is in the Highlands area and they do such vital work.
“There’s just such a crisis with mental health in the Highlands, it’s just terrible. So I really admire the work they do and the lifeline they try and give to people who need it.”
To find out more information or to get tickets to Mikeysline Burns Supper on January 25, 2024, in Inverness visit the charity’s website.
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