Ninian provides hundreds of scarves for epic war film

Products made by an isles knitwear company have been brought to the big screen, with scarves and wrist warmers made by Ninian featuring on the epic war film 1917.

The business was approached last year by the film’s costume department to see if it could provide knitted goods for the production’s cast to wear as part of their costumes.

Directed by Sam Mendes, 1917 follows two young British soldiers during World War One as they are given an impossible mission to deliver a message deep in enemy territory.

It has already received critical acclaim and has received 10 nominations in the Oscars. The film has won Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director at the  Golden Globes, too.

Ninian owner Joanna Hunter said she was delighted to have been involved in the project.

Staff machine-knitted 350 scarves and around 50 pairs of wrist warmers for use in the film.

Mrs Hunter said workers had to deliberately make products they would not wish to see on display.

“We wanted as many khaki, horrible colours as we could get. They were all very dull, in greens and browns.

“It looked a bit rough around the edge.”

She drew inspiration from information she found online to help give the products some added authenticity.

But does making scarves intentionally dull go against her creative side?

“It does slightly. But when we researched the project we found the Women’s Institute used to make scarves to send out to troops on the front line. It was quite interesting looking at it, and it was quite nice to do something a bit historic, and work from images to make it imperfect.

“But it’s not something we could ever have sold.”

• Read more on Ninian’s involvement with 1917 in The Shetland Times, out Friday.