Alexander McQueen’s ‘The Widows of Culloden’ collection from 2006.

 ‘…And there are times I think I see you when I find the kind of face

Where a woman’s independence has kept a woman’s grace

Where confidence and pride refuse to know their place

Or hide behind the easy tricks of beauty…’From ‘Strong Women Rule Us All’, Words & Music Brian McNeill

Maggie Craig author of  Damn Rebel Bitches

 In 2000, Scottish author Maggie Craig published her first book ‘Damn Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45’, a historical study of the women caught up the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, a bloody uprising that tore Scotland apart and ended in slaughter at the Battle of Culloden, the suppression of Highland dress and centuries of resentment that still simmer today in calls for Independence and the Scottish National Party’s maneuvering to remain in Europe post Brexit. Maggie used archival material and letters to tell the personal stories of women who fought to save their lands from clearance, rioted on front lines and attacked law enforcement in a fight to protect their land and homes. They hid sympathetic soldiers and cared for prisoners.

Lady “Colonel” Anne  Farquharson Mackintosh, aka La Belle Rebelle was only 22 when she joined  the Jacobite cause 1745

There were women like Lady Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh a Jacobite of Clan Farquharson and the wife of Angus, Chief of Clan Mackintosh used her position to raise troops personally for Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army and support the clan. It was period of terrible brutality and the prison were often full of women in their 20s and 30s who were only defending their right to live and prosper on land they saw as rightfully theirs.

Alexander McQueen  Widows of Culloden Collection 2006

It is a shameful period in the English Crown’s management of land and people. The so-called Butcher of Cumberland, Prince William who crushed the 1746 rebellion at the Battle of Culloden referred to the Jacobite women as those ‘damn rebel bitches.

Urban Reivers Shop in Edinborough Photo by TSF

 2016. August. On my skin for most of these last few muggy Edinburgh days is something new and very exclusive… ‘Damn Rebel Bitches’…  (I love the name) a perfume created especially by Sarah McCartney for Urban Reivers a beautiful new Scottish concept brand that launched its website this week and opened its pop-up shop smack bang in the heart of Festival Edinburgh in George Street. I dropped in to talk to the incredibly kind and charming Sara Sheridan the woman behind the Reivers as it were.  Sara has sourced Scottish things to sell. Simple.

 

Anne Deniau  for Alexander McQueen Widows of Culloden 2006

In theory yes, but in a city drowning in ginger Jimmy wigs, ghastly tartan and Nessie themed tourist tat stores, creating a contemporary stylish and enviable vision of Scotland that isn’t Outlander, Highlander or Braveheart is actually pretty difficult.   Not so chez Urban Reivers. The name itself is oddly contradictory; the original reivers were marauding raiders on the border between Scotland and England from the 13th to the 17th centuries, living in the shadows on the wrong side of the law and right side of a weapon. My Musgrave forefathers were part of the West March Riding.  Fast forward to urban today.. foraging, collecting etc.

Photo from Urban Reivers instagram

The name is perfect. Sara has curated a collection of very precise and distinctly covetable things from scarves, bowties and pocket squares printed in blue or green vintage maps, ceramics, wooden tableware to Highlander candles with crackling wooden wicks, and a diverse array of Scottish gin, liqueurs, mixers and glassware.  Among my favourite touches are the bespoke wooden gift boxes made by Porter and Woodman that can be filled with assorted things and reused.

Damn Rebel Bitches is the first in the REEK series of perfumes (photo TSF)

 Damn Rebel Bitches is an amazing name for a fragrance and is the first part of Reek, a developing collection of scent by Sara in collaboration with Sarah McCartney. There is a men’s scent to come next year called Bare-Arsed Banditti, the title of another book by Maggie Craig about the men of the ’45 rebellion. I had a sneak scent preview of it in store and it’s wonderful. Reek will also include candles. Just now there is Highlander, an unscented candle with a wooden wick, the crackling burn designed to conjure up the sound of fires in crofters’ cottages. A peaty scent is in the works next. Sara and Sarah McCartney go way back to writing groups together and when Sara thought of making a scent for Urban Reivers there was of course really one person that fitted the bill; Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays, one of the UK’s most innovative and adaptive perfumers who seems to genuinely get a huge kick out of what she does. I recently posted on the Foxy Facebook fan page about my obsession with her Over the Chocolate Shop scent. Sarah’s work is seriously exuberant, I love the names and her work ethic is damn fine, she is one of the hardest working perfumers ion the business.

Damn Rebel Bitches Perfume  photo collage by TSF

 Back to those Damn Rebel Bitches… Sara and Sarah spent time together, perfumer and historical novelist exploring themes and aromas. The result is just beautiful, surprisingly joyful and robust, bursting at the tartan seams with an oozing blood orange note, symbolic perhaps of blood splashed on so much battle-torn tartan.  Oranges were relatively new to Britain at the time and marmalade was just starting to be made in Scotland. Clary sage and pink peppercorn add spice and a fleeting trashed green effect that smells very bright under that huge orange overture. Clary sage was always a woman’s herb and its antiseptic and healing properties have long been known; so Sara felt it was important to have its presence in the scent.

Anne Deniau  for Alexander McQueen Widows of Culloden 2006

The interesting things are hazelnut extract (corylus) and malt, lending the overall composition a smeared, slightly caramalised gourmand facet, but not exactly sweet. The nuttiness is more akin to barley actually and the malt pushes that barley character towards the mashing stage in distilling. It is not a boozy scent, but everything is suggested, olfactory subterfuge if you like. Sara told me hazelnuts were part of the Highland diet at the time and the malt note references the long history of brewing. Spices at the time were of course incredibly expensive and something like pink pepper would have locked up due to its costliness.

Damn Rebel Bitches Sarah McCartney for Sara Sheridan Urban Reivers  REEK collage TSF)

This attention to detail is just lovely and when you buy your bottle of Damn Rebel Bitches it comes in one of the small Urban Reivers wooden Swally Boxes, wrapped in paper. When you unwrap it, another surprise; the bottle is nestled inside a calico bag. Sara explained this is an echo of the importance the women of the time placed on precious things making bags from scraps of tartan or velvet to carry their treasured possessions. I love this subtle resonant touch. So between these two fabulous rebel bitches… an evocative swaggering scent has been created. Hints of history and daring process, your skin and mind transmute the rest. I think everyone has it in them to be a damn rebel bitch… 

Guest Contributor, The Silver Fox

 Disclosure – sample kindly received from Urban Reivers

All images of the Urban Reivers store ©TSF

Alex chose fashion editorial from Alexander McQueen’s ‘The Widows of Culloden’ collection from 2006. These images were taken by Anne Deniau on the runaway and backstage in Paris in 2006. They were used in her astonishing book ‘Love Looks Not with the Eyes’