D.C. Dalgliesh weavers - how to help us rescue this vitally important mill
As you may know, my partner Adele and I recently stepped in to rescue the D.C. Dalgliesh tartan weaving mill from closure. You can read more in this thread.
We'll be doing all we can to turn around their fortunes. But really we need YOUR help. Our main challenge is to raise their profile, not just in the kiltmaking world but to textile companies and tartan lovers generally. If you have ANY ideas or abilities to help do this, please get in touch or share your thoughts below.
The single biggest thing you can do is to help us spread the word. And the best way of all to do that is to put up your own web link to the D.C. Dalgliesh web site, somewhere on the web. You'll find suggestions and resources on the Support D.C. Dalgliesh page. We can't say too strongly how important and helpful this is!
If you still don't know just why it matters so much that this mill is restored to health for the sake of not just tartan lovers today, but future generations, the quick answer is that without them, 90% of all tartans would never ever be woven. Most families could never again wear their family tartan, forever. This matters to all of us.
I've produced a short video that attempts to show just how much individual skill, care, and work goes into each and every piece of fabric the mill weaves.
And on the D.C. Dalgliesh web site you'll find a lot more information that explains both the weaving processes, and exactly why the tartans they produce really are the best in the world, bar none, and indeed one of the few sources anywhere now of proper kilting tartans.
So please chip in, in any way you can. Know a journalist who'd write about them? Know someone who knows someone who knows a celebrity who'd mention them (or wear their tartan)? Know anyone with a club newsletter that could feature them? Know anyone with a Facebook page that could Like them? (Yes, even that is helpful.)
We'd love if you could make any suggestions you like, below, as to what else we could do to improve the web site, or improve or expand the services that D.C. Dalgliesh offers... of course without ever changing the qualities that make them great. We can't promise to do everything overnight, but you can be sure we'll be listening carefully. Thanks!
Nick:
I'd like to suggest posting prices, on the DCD website. It is always one of my primary concerns, not being wealthy enough to not be concerned about price.
Another thought: perhaps post some of the praise, from some of the (world-wide) professional kilt-makers? Quality and the ability of being able to get a kilt length of custom weave is also a prime consideration, and I think these should be "high-lighted".
Last edited by jhockin; 4th May 11 at 09:59 PM.
Reason: spelling correction
Thanks Bruce! For anyone not so familiar with how the web works, I should explain just why it's so important for as many people as possible to add links to D.C. Dalgliesh on their own web sites and blogs etc.
It's not just the people in your own circle who will see these links. There's a much more important reason. Most people find things on the web by using search engines like Google. And searching for "tartan" at the moment, for example, D.C. Dalgliesh is not even in the top 100 results, and most people don't look beyond the first page. We need textile producers all over the world to find them when they look for tartan.
The main way Google ranks a site's importance is by how many other people link to it. So the more of you add a link, the better! It counts even more from a very busy web site. But even a personal blog adds important credit to their ranking calculations.
Also, if you can work the word "tartan" or "tartan weaver" into your hyperlinked words, that's best of all. Because then Google knows it's a site mostly about tartan, and returns it for searches looking for tartan.
So once again (sorry for the repetition, but it really is in a good cause!) please ask anyone you know with a web site to visit the Support D.C. Dalgliesh page. And explain to them why it's important!
Nick:
I'd like to suggest posting prices, on the DCD website. It is always one of my primary concerns, not being wealthy enough to not be concerned about price.
Another thought: perhaps post some of the praise, from some of the (world-wide) professional kilt-makers? Quality and the ability of being able to get a kilt length of custom weave is also a prime consideration, and I think these should be "high-lighted".
I'm aiming to show pricing as soon as we can. But there's a bunch of technical work to do first, so it may take a bit of time. And yes, I think you're right that a page of 'references' so to speak would be sensible. I should probably ask the makers here who has commented here whether they'd mind... will get on the PM trail as soon as I can find the time!...
I'm aiming to show pricing as soon as we can. But there's a bunch of technical work to do first, so it may take a bit of time. And yes, I think you're right that a page of 'references' so to speak would be sensible. I should probably ask the makers here who has commented here whether they'd mind... will get on the PM trail as soon as I can find the time!...
Nick,
Just my personal opinion, but I don't see a need to show pricing. Here's why. If DC Dalgliesh is going to be selling direct to their trade accounts, and retail sales handled by Scotweb, then I don't see a need for pricing info on the Dalgliesh site.
For the retail customer, they are directed to Scotweb's page and the pricing info is there.
For the trade customer, they will have the pricing information from the mill.
And if retail customers won't be able to buy direct from the mill, why confuse the issue by showing pricing information on the mill site?
I just don't see the need and think it may confuse the issue.
With retail, we'd like to list tartans, with prices and delivery schedules, on the D.C. Dalgliesh web site itself rather than having to take them to Scotweb. Only if a customer wanted to purchase would the transaction then be handled off-site. This will take some work...
With trade, I'm envisaging a trade-only password-protected version of the same, but with orders being handled at the mill. There are various reasons I think this would be sensible, including that potential new customers could get access to prices more quickly; that prices could be adjusted more than once a year and without the costs of physical distribution (the price of raw wool has almost doubled in the last year!); and that tartans could be priced more appropriately (some complex setts take almost twice as much time to weave as others, and currently this is only surcharged on an ad hoc basis). We're also considering (and I'd emphasise that word) the possibility of basing prices on a set up charge plus yardage, since that's the reality of the costs. This is all some way in the future, but we're not ruling anything out, and I don't see a single A4 sheet of paper being sufficient in the long term.
Does this make more sense? I'm very open to discussion, as we are very much at the learning and blue sky thinking stage ourselves!
I really like the idea of an online trade version of the site that could be used by kiltmakers and other trade customers.
I have found when ordering (from most UK mills) that my order disappears into a haze of obscurity and I have to make expensive phone calls if I want any info, between the initial order and when the fabric arrives on my doorstep a few weeks later.
"Liked" personally, and a "friends of" banner placed on the FlamingoKilts links page. I'm in touch with our local clan assoc to see what they are willing to do along the same lines. Hoping that every little bit really does help!
Proudly Duncan [maternal], MacDonald and MacDaniel [paternal].
Originally Posted by jhockin
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