THE KEATING SCARF

The follow-up to last winter's Alumni Scarf takes its cue from a cinematic source.

Our latest iteration pays tribute to Robin Williams' role as Mr Keating, the forward thinking English teacher at Welton Academy in 1989's Dead Poets Society. His unorthodox teaching methods and romantic worldview imbue the pupils with a new sense of self in a rigid impersonal environment, putting him on a collision course with the authorities in the 1950s New England prep school. The film remains a personal favourite of mine since seeing it at the cinema aged 16, having just been kicked out of a similarly restrictive and regressive educational establishment.

The college scarf as we know it owes its form to wartime rationing. University sporting societies and clubs had been wearing knitted team colours since time immemorial, but the outbreak of WWII meant all knitting yarn was earmarked for the war effort. The scarf supplier to Ede & Ravenscroft was left in a bind with unfilled orders for Eton, Cambridge and other venerable institutions. The novel answer came via tearing long strips of Saxony wool, a flannel like twill, and sewing them together vertically in a manner akin to traditional flag making. This piece of simple innovation remains the norm to this day.

Individually handmade in a small workshop in England, available now for shipping from the 24th November

- Made In England
- 100% Saxony Wool
- Traditional length (180cm x 25cm)
- Dry Clean Only

"Seize the day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary." - Mr Keating, Dead Poets Society