Brian Halley: Designing the homeless tartan

Slanj Kilts is a clothing company founded by Brian Halley that has been making traditional Highland dress and tartan gifts for the past 30 years. Brian Halley created the homelessness tartan in 2016 to raise awareness of homelessness in Scotland, donating 20% of the profits raised by selling products with this design to Shelter Scotland.

What inspired you to create the original homeless tartan?

I just thought that the idea of people buying things and a portion of the money going to charity was like a no-brainer. It was always a case of trying to find the right product, in my case tartan, because that's my background. It was the best way for me to try and raise awareness and raise funds for homelessness.

What connections do you see between that work and the work of street papers?

I think the Big Issue is a fantastic initiative and I’d like to support it in any way I can, whether it's buying the paper or in any other way. We used to advertise in it quite regularly, then we moved on to doing the Tartan products for them. Nowadays we sell products through the Big Issue online store as well.

What got you into founding Slanj Kilts and making tartan in the first place?

I always wanted to start my own business so I wasn't sure exactly what kind of way to do that. I had a couple of ventures before but I was always interested in clothing and, being very patriotic, tartan. I started that up 30 years ago, the same as INSP. So I’m just really, really passionate about Scotland, and about tartan. Making it more modern and coming up with new designs is what keeps us going.

When you made the international homeless tartan, what difference do you think that's gonna make?

I think we can raise a lot of money through the new tartan. The old one has done very well over the years. I think they've tweaked a little bit and it's even nicer, the colours pop out better. I'm interested in speaking to Big Issue North about doing socks in the tartan because everyone's into trendy socks nowadays. Then, every pair of socks sold results in a new pair of socks for a homeless person.

What can we do to keep changing the narrative on homelessness and poverty?

We just need to keep it out there. Keep it in the public eye, keep it on the news. Everyone seems to identify with it. Most people are very lucky to have a roof over their heads, but for those who don’t, we see them in the streets and It would be great if it can help in any way we can. We just need to keep talking about it. I think the network is amazing because of that. It’s like-minded people around the world talking about it. Build that out, move to more countries, more street papers. It'd be great to just keep expanding on that. I didn’t know much about the network until you got in touch with me a few months ago, but now that I know more I think it’s great, and I’d love to support it in any way I can.

What sort of role do you think events like this might have in helping make that change?

It's just awareness, really. The more we talk about it, the more we can do something about it. We can actually do something about homelessness and if we all work together and help get people off the streets, and get them a voice so they're not invisible. We can all work to that end, you just have to keep trying.

You were talking about the bright colours in the tartan as well. What’s the significance of those for the homeless tartan?

I might be a bit cheesy, but I see the background was a kind of neutral grey gloomy day. And then every day's got a bit of colour in it. I just wanted to make it as vibrant as possible, and incorporate as many colours as you can weave into tartan. They’re sort of strands of people on a grey background, to show there's always nice moments in a day.

To learn more, visit https://slanjkilts.com