The Christmas jumper craze has been sweeping across the nation since November, and it has finally hit the Brora HQ in a big way! Celebrities gathered together in a campaign to fashion their best and worst, today it was our turn.

Members of our design team organised a Christmas jumper competition, where the proceeds went to the Save The Children charity, and in return the best ones would win some delicious treats. Christmas pugs, penguins, snowflakes, baubles, tinsel and LED neon lights! We had them all; the good, the bad and the fantastically ugly!

THE  CHRISTMAS SNOWFLAKES

Kajsa- Marketing, Katherine- Reception, Alex- Design, Gilly- Design, Dave- Graphics

THE CHRISTMAS SWEATERS

Laura- Web, Sue- Customer Services, Justine- Web (Excuse the huge finger).

THE BESPOKE CHRISTMAS JUMPERS

Victoria- Founder/Creative Director, Irene- Graphics, Ally- Graphics, Nigel- General Manager, Matt- Warehouse

From this point on the categories got a little blurred…

THE CHRISTMAS CLASSICS…plus a penguin

Peter- Warehouse, Ryan- Warehouse, Lisa- Design, Yvonne- Design

THE CHRISTMAS TINSELS..and others

Martsie- Design, Sue- Office Management, Kirsten- Design, Gary- Design, Kieron- Buying, Bhav- IT/E-commerce

Although Victoria took pictures with us, she was not a part of the competition, and instead was our official adjudicator in this highly important matter.

In 3rd place…

Bhav, with his home-made stencil snowflake, courtesy of his 6 year old boys.

2nd…

Ally, for the reindeer that looks like a bear with antlers jumper; a fab ebay find.

And the winner is (drum roll)…

Matt and his amazing technicolor dream hoodie!

Thank you to all the Brora particpants and donators, and to those of you who took part on last Friday. See you all the same time next year ;)

Last night Gilly, my knitwear designer, and I hit Glasgow for a very special event. The Scottish fashion awards were buzzing with over 2000 glamorous, bronzed Glaswegians and fashionistas gathered in one glittering space. Plus Hilary Alexander looking magnificent!

The highlights were the brilliant, stylish, funny and gorgeous Alexa Chung hosting the event, ad libbing when necessary and generally keeping the swing going

AND Stella Tennant winning the final award for the hall of fame, for her fantastic contribution to the fashion world. A 10 minute video clip summed up her work over the years with glowing accolades from Karl Lagerfeld and Mario Testino.

We were pipped to the post in our category by Mulberry but it was an honour to be nominated alongside such a prestigious company. And Mulberry have had a fabulous year. Maybe it will be our turn next time!

Stella introduced me to Christopher Kane before the evening got under way and we were equally pleased to meet each other at last having been ships that pass in the night on so many mill trips. He won Scottish designer of the year to much applause (a charming man).

Hats off to Scottish fashion!

Tonight is the prestigious and highly anticipated 7th annual Scottish Fashion Awards, held at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow, followed by a thoroughly glamorous Gala VIP dinner.

We are delighted to have been nominated, alongside Mulberry and APC, under the category of Best Use of Scottish Fabric by International Designer. Victoria is thrilled to be a part of such an esteemed occasion that celebrates the influence of Scotland on fashion. We have been producing cashmere at our mill in Scotland for the past 19 years and wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.

The fashion event is to be hosted by honorary style icon Alexa Chung, who has expressed a great amount of passion for British fashion and the growth of its designers: “it is essential we nurture and promote them. Scotland’s cutting-edge designers like Christopher Kane, Holly Fulton and Louise Gray are now creating serious waves at a global level”.

As you know, last year we made a colourful cashmere collaboration with Louise Gray, which was a great success and generated a lot of industry buzz. Tonight Ms. Gray is again nominated for Scottish Designer of the Year and we can’t wait to show our support for her this evening.

We’ll be sure to update you with more news from tonight’s fashion awards in Scotland so keep up with our blog, follow us on Twitter and add us on Facebook.

As you may have heard by now, this year’s People’s Champion Awards for Chelsea In Bloom Retailer’s Competition was won by us!

We’re simply thrilled with winning the title and thank everyone who supported Brora and to all who came into our Symons street shop and complimented us.

A shop display window is the face of a store and so should be inviting, eye-catching and more importantly a reflection of the brand. This is why as a company we take so much pride in being creative and playful with the visual aesthetics of our windows.

As much as we loved our floral window display for the Chelsea In Bloom competition, the flowers couldn’t last for long so we decided to keep with the set theme of the Queen’s Jubilee and go a little crazy with the red, white & blue décor.

Knowing just how precious the Queen’s beloved corgis are to her, we thought that a cardboard cut-out of them would go down nicely as part of the display. Below is Elizabeth II, not yet a Queen, but a little princess very much enamoured with her childhood pet corgi.

The Queen’s corgis are almost as famous as her majesty, they’ve long since been a mark of any and everything British, showing just how much of an iconic symbol the chic little dog is.

Pop down to your local Brora shop and have a look at our jubilee themed displays. Come and tell us what you think!

Three cheers for Brora! We are winners in the first ever Sheerluxe Online Shopping Awards. We fought off hot competition to win the knitwear category and we are thrilled. With other category winners including great names such as Net a Porter, Smythson, Space NK and the White Company, we are proud of the company we keep and that our gorgeous cashmere is speaking for itself.

To celebrate, and to thank all of you who voted for us, we have a fabulous prize on line today. Get your Brora cashmere wish list ready and start ordering, as every 50th order before midnight on Friday 1st October will win one of our sumptuous cashmere Aran shrug worth £395.

It’s a treat for Brora lovers as the temperature drops…..