The traditional golfers' v-necks are now only part of the story as designers create a catwalk collection shown at London Fashion Week and secure trendy celebrity clients such as Scarlett Johansson, Madonna and Ewan McGregor.
But repositioning the iconic brand so far hasn't transformed Pringle's fortunes and Mary-Adair has a battle on her hands to make it profitable.
The company has lost more than £9million for the third year running. But if anyone can do it, the smart, chic Philadelphia lawyer can. Her aim is to marry the firm's rich heritage with modern design and shake off its "rampant Scottishness". Mary-Adair, who has Scots ancestors, said: "Our idea is to ask 'What is the new Scotland?' "It doesn't have to be a heavy woolly sweater." Mary-Adair was made chief executive almost two years ago. She originally trained as a maritime lawyer but moved into fashion, which she found far more creative and satisfying.
While working as a sales assistant for Tiffany jewellers, she so impressed one customer, who happened to be a Chanel executive, that she was offered a job on the spot. It was the start of 22 years with the company, first in the US and then Paris, which led to her becoming director of global marketing. When she announced she was leaving Chanel, which has annual sales of £2billion, for Pringle, with its turnover of around £60million, colleagues were surprisingly encouraging. Then the recession started. She said: "Many people told me I'd done good because Pringle is a company that could really go places. Like me, they didn't understand why it hadn't become a big success.
"When the recession hit two weeks after I started, I wondered if I should have just stayed where I was.
"And the last factory in the Borders closed a few months before I started. I found out about it after I'd signed on the dotted line."
The 2008 closure of the historic mill in Hawick was a blow not only to workers but also to the community. Some Pringle products are still made in Scotland, with cashmere and handknits produced by other factories in the Borders region. Mary-Adair is keen to increase Scottish production, saying: "Every mill in the Borders contacted us to say 'If you have business, please bring it our way.' And we are doing just that.
"We have never stopped making Scottish knitwear. It's just the amount that's made in Scotland that has decreased but we're growing that back. There's a real intrinsic value to Scottish knitwear. It got too expensive or the competition got too good and the Borders dropped off". But fashion customers will say there is real value to wonderful, luxurious Scottish knitwear. "Key retailers want to work with us at the luxury end because a lot of labels are made in Asia or somewhere else and it's not the same. Not the same longevity, not the same feel."
Mary-Adair's appointment follows the critical acclaim of Clare Waight Keller's collections for the company. Designer Clare joined after stints at Ralph Lauren and Gucci and said of Pringle: "I want to move away from the sportswear associations and all that rampant Scottishness."
Another high-prof ile addition to the company was Scots actress Tilda Swinton. She will front Pringle's advertising campaign for the second time this autumn, in pictures taken near her Nairn home.
Mary-Adair said: "Tilda designed a twinset for us for an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. It was copied from one that had belonged to her grandmother. "She changed the buttons and added a brooch but kept the colour. Many people, like Tilda, have a connection to Pringle and an opinion on it."
Clearly Mary-Adair has high hopes for the company and cites another British brand, Burberry, as an example to follow. She said: "Look at the genius of what Burberry did, a very British label that has become a successful fashion brand on the back of a raincoat and lining. What can you not do with knitwear?"
Lindsay Clydesdale
