A COMPLETE GUIDE OF THE HISTORY OF TWEED
A Brief history of tweed
Tweed is a legend with long and complex history, from the basic fabric of peasant functionality to high fashion. Actually, tweed is the wrong copying from “tweel”（which is the most popular weaving technique for making the fabric) by a London buyer misspelled the Scottish word, thinking the fabric was named for the River Tweed in Scotland. And then tweed enters the fashion vocabulary for good.
Tweed’s great quality of wind and water resistant still makes it become the national dress in the British Isles for shooting, fly-fishing, academic academy, and other country sport activities. Far more than a fabric, the tweed legend went on well with the class, gender and fashion same like as rich and complex as the fabric itself.
What are the origins of tweed?
The fabric originated in Scotland and Ireland, the region of where has extremely cold winters and generally damp and hostile climate, worn commonly by farmers, as the tweed is so flexible and comfortable and warm to cold resistant to wear long days working in the outdoors. Other than the functional hard wearing fabric, tweed become popular in the upper classes across the Britain after 1848, when Prince Albert purchased the estate of Balmoral in Scotland and designed the unique Balmoral tweed. It has the trends that the leisure class gentlemen buy the estate or some rented one. Soon it became fashionable among the new owners of the highland estate to have their own estate tweed to differentiate themselves during hunting expeditions and other outdoor activities.
Naturally, tweed became the must-have for the estate and top choice for the Victorian aspirational middle class, as Edward P. Harrison, and Victorians alike loved tweed for its versatility, warmth and breathability.
Over the last decades, tweed’s fashion status has waxed and waned, even fell out of fashion and wear associated with conservative and old-fashioned values. But driven by its high quality and informed by its complex history and connotations, it went back to fashion again by the famous brands Coco Chanel, Galiano, Vivienne Westwood and David Gandy.
Main Tweed types
HERRINGBONE TWEED
Herringbone is a broken twill weave that produces a pattern of V on the surface of the fabric. Some say the herringbone pattern looks like fish bones, hence the name. We have the full range of popular herringbone tweed.
BARLEYCORN TWEED
Barleycorn tweeds have a flecked pattern which gives the look of barleycorn kernels on the surface of the fabric. Often complex with the colors in dynamic pattern to have a slightly bumpy feel.
OVERCHECK TWILL
Overcheck twill is a plain twill fabric with a large checked design of horizontal and vertical lines in a contrasting color completing the tweed pattern. Depending on your use with the options of small or large check.
HOUNDSTOOTH TWEED
Houndstooth ( or Dogtooth) tweed is a type of large broken checked pattern that uses pointed shapes instead of squares. Semi-resembling the teeth of a dog, houndstooth is a larger take on the dogtooth pattern.
Donegal tweed.
Donegal tweed name is from its originate: Irish county of Donegal. It is one of the most popular tweed types in the world, and distinguished by its rainbow-colored speckles of yarn throughout the knobby surface.
It would be never a bad choice to get a tweed suit from our full range tweed suit series. An irresistible and eye-catching Tweed perfect for weddings, special occasions, business, but also great as an everyday blazer with jeans or chinos.
