Scots firm treading the Boardwalk

THE casinos, diners and mobsters are pure American. But in Boardwalk Empire, the latest TV sensation to bring a heady mixture of danger, glamour and 1920s glitz across the Atlantic, the backdrops are actually Scottish.

Many of the period fabrics which serve as the backdrop to the action are supplied by Morton Young and Borland Textiles, based in Ayrshire, which is fast becoming a favoured supplier to Hollywood.

Its range of lace fabrics are the latest of its products to grace the screen in the hit US TV show, which debuted on Sky in the UK two weeks ago after being shown in America to huge critical acclaim.

MYB's fabrics are the supporting actors in several key scenes in the programme, which stars actor Steve Buscemi and Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.

Boardwalk Empire evokes Prohibition-era Atlantic City as a town known for high-stakes gambling and partying. From HBO, which made other hit US dramas including The Wire and Sex And The City, the show has meticulously sourced authentic materials for its sets, and last year contacted MYB to put in an order.

Margot Graham, MYB's head designer, said: "Because it's set in the 1920s, a lot of our fabrics are quite apt. Our fabrics go back to that sort of era and a lot of them are more than 100 years old. The fabric coming off our looms now is the same as it would have been in the 1920s so it's very authentic."

MYB produces traditional woven fabrics and high-end lace designs from its mill in Newmilns, Ayrshire, where it employs 16 weavers on its machine looms. Two years ago it formed a partnership with Scots design firm Timorous Beasties to produce a lace wallpaper that was featured in the movie Sex And The City 2, and has supplied fabrics for a number of Hollywood movies including Alice In Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, the forthcoming Water For Elephants, starring Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, and the final instalment of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn. The firm also supplies fabric for US fashion designer Ralph Lauren and provided the material backdrop for rock star Pink's last tour.

"What we're doing is unique," said Graham. "All of our manufacturing and the other fabrics we produce are unlike anything else out there."

Cathy Black, head of textiles at Scottish Enterprise, said: "This is another great example of the international appeal of Scottish textiles. MYB is now well established as a producer of high-quality lace products, which are snapped up by many set designers from stage and screen."

The company supplied Boardwalk Empire with three lace designs, Griffin, Edwardian Madras and Meadow Lily.Griffin was sourced from what the firm calls its "lace archive", which contains hundreds of old Scottish lace patterns, many of them over a century old and some taken from lace mills that have since shut down. Edwardian Madras is one of MYB's mill's traditional designs, while Meadow Lily is based on a design found at the Victoria & Albert museum in London.

Graham said she managed to spot all three in the first episode of Boardwalk Empire - which, at 18 million, was the most expensive pilot made in television history - in both a casino and an office.

"We do always try to reinvent a design and our patterns to make them more up to date, while preserving the tradition," said Graham. "While we're using the archive, it's usually not a straight copy, but it gives customers an idea if they want to trawl through it and see the sort of things they like."

Boardwalk Empire's authenticity has been one of the show's hallmarks. Its costumes are based on designs from 1920s tailoring books from the Fashion Institute of Technology's research libraries, and also inspired by outfits on display in museums such as the New York Met and Brooklyn Museum.

Much of the show was filmed on a specially created set in Brooklyn which features a 300ft period-perfect rendition of 1920s Atlantic City and took three months to build.

MYB's mill at Newmilns has been running for more than a century in the Irvine Valley, which was once a hotspot for lace mills in Scotland. Only two mills remain of the 32 which were once in the area.

As well as its more glamorous commissions, MYB also undertakes a lot of work in fabric restoration in conjunction with museums and historic houses and recently received an order for a piece of fabric for a Russian government office in Moscow.

Black added: "More and more Scottish textiles companies are now a favourite choice for customers across the globe and we hope this continues in the months and years to come."