Stewarton firm makes Harry Potter uniforms

Oct 3 2008 by Stef Lach, Kilmarnock Standard

IT’S recognised far and wide as the Bonnet Toun – but a little-known local legend means we might have to start calling it Spellbinding Stewarton.

A local knitwear manufacturer can truly claim to have the magic touch as it makes the school jumpers, tank tops and cardigans worn by the pupils at Harry Potter’s Hogwarts school in the smash hit movies.

Lochaven International Ltd has made the school knitwear for every film in the series, apart from the first one, and spends around two months making the 400 garments before each movie begins filming.

Each item has to be individually tailored for the actors.

They finished their last batch in December last year for the filming of the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is due to be released next year.

It will be around a year before they begin another batch for the final two movies in the mega successful series.

The firm’s 22 staff make the magical garments in four different colours, which each represent a house group in Hogwarts – either Gryffindor (Harry’s house), Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

Lochaven’s marketing director, Heidi Daniel, said: “Warner Brothers, who make the Harry Potter films, got in touch with us and asked us to make the items and they were delighted with the quality.

“We’ve made the garments from then on and it’s quite an exciting story for our company. Not many people know where the jumpers, tank tops and cardigans are made.

“That’s quite amazing when you consider how hugely popular the films are and it’s certainly something for Lochaven to be proud of.”

That these instantly recognisable garments are made in Stewarton is certainly one of the town’s more impressive claims to fame.

Lochaven’s owner Keith Murray admitted that when he and his business partners bought the firm in October last year, he had no idea they made the famous clothes.

He said: “We get e-mails from all over the world from fans of the books and films asking if they can buy one.

“Although there is no legal reason why we can’t, we don’t actually actively market them so they are pretty rare.

“Our quality and ability to produce relatively small batches in Scotland makes us fairly unique these days and that allows us to work within the film industry.

“The garments are very visible in the films and have become recognised as an integral part of Harry Potter. There is also a large Scottish connection with the films so it’s great to be a part of it.”