Country Tweeds - the accessories

There are a number of accessories that are commonly teamed with tweed jackets, including trousers, caps and gloves.

The jacket was always worn with matching breeks (short trousers) which were ideal for country pursuits due to the hard-wearing fabric. It wasn’t until the 20^th century that the tweed jacket was teamed with non-matching trousers.

Barbour Lightweight Berwick Tweed Breeks

Barbour has kept with the traditional breeks with this pair of lightweight
Berwick tweed breeks, to match their Berwick tweed shooting jacket.
http://www.barbour.com/

New Look Whilst fashion-forward New Look has used tweed on the new trendy style of trousers  – the carrot leg. This style suits tweed as it is not dissimilar to breeks with its baggier  top and tapering legs – great for tucking into boots or wellies. http://www.newlook.com/ New Look has urbanised their tweed trousers by not matching with a tweed jacket, but this fashionista brand knows the sartorial power of the flat cap – giving an edgy look to the whole ensemble. Barbour Crieff Cap The flat cap has a varied history from when every male over 6yrs (except the upper class) was legally bound to wear English woollen caps (or else fined) on Sundays and holidays in 1571 up until 1597, to the headgear favoured by the upper class for country pursuits, and back to the city working class in the 1920s. So no wonder it seems at home with the trendy and the classics. Barbour Eilden Cap Barbour has a selection of tweed caps: Their Eilden cap is waterproof and matches their lightweight washable Berwick tweed...   Musto's York cap Musto’s York cap has a water-repellent Teflon finish and comes in a selection of colourways, one being Renwick to match their stretch technical shooting jacket. http://www.musto.com/ And Simon Carter wins hands down with his brown leather and tweed gloves http://www.simoncarter.net/

Country Tweeds-the modern sports jacket

Adapted from the hacking jacket, the modern sports jacket has longer lapels with either one or two buttons. The flapped pockets may or may not be slanted, and it usually has side vents for easy access to trouser back pockets. By the early 1900s it became fashionable for men to wear sports jackets at the more casual social functions rather than just keep them for sporting activities, and the jackets began to have a simpler cut losing the more practical sporting features such as the belt and bulky pockets.
The modern tweed jacket ranges from the classic to the trendy:

Devonport London, a newly-launched menswear brand, concentrates on the qualities of tradition, heritage and highly-skilled craftsmanship shunning the use of adhesives and other modern fusion techniques, looking instead to the traditional methods of hand-stitching, loose horsehair interlinings and hand-making collars.
www.devonportlondon.com

Whilst New Look brings tweeds to the younger man who doesn’t want to spend too much and just wants to have fun with the look, layering and mixing with other fabrics and textures such as jeans. www.newlook.com Whatever your style is there will be a Tweed jacket out there for you.

Country Tweeds- the Hacking Jacket

Taking its name from ‘hackney’ – a term for a saddle-horse, this jacket was originally worn and designed for horseriding. The slight flare from the waist and centre vent ensured the jacket kept its shape on and off the horse. The slanted, flapped pockets stopped any items from falling out of them whilst leaning forward jumping a fence and the third narrow ticket pocket was ideal to keep smaller items safe such as coins.
This style suits the slimmer man due to its high waist, shorter lapels (3–4 buttons) and fitted silhouette.

An example of this style is the Torridon Tweed riding jacket, which can be purchased through http://www.bookster.co.uk/.

They also have adapted the jacket a little for everyday wear - this Grannoch Tweed jacked is less waisted and has longer lapels.

Country Tweeds - the shooting jacket

Originally designed to suit a particular country sport, the styles of tweed jackets vary from the more loose-fitting casual styles worn for shooting, through the popular formal sports jackets to the more structured and tailored hacking jackets for riding.

The Shooting jacket

Full Balmoral Norfolk jacket http://www.bookster.co.uk/

The first jacket worn for the sport of shooting was the Norfolk in the 1860s. It is a loose-belted single-breasted jacket with box pleats on the front and back and was adapted from the jacket worn by the Rifle Corps in 1859. The jacket allowed easy movement when using a gun. The jacket was either named after the sport-loving 15th Duke of Norfolk who started to wear it on his shooting parties, or due to the Prince of Wales setting a trend by wearing it on his shooting trips in Norfolk.
This style is not as popular now, but you can still purchase it through companies such as http://www.bookster.co.uk./ Standard price approx £349.99

 

The Cinder Ettrick jacket www.dsdundee.com



DS Dundee have a modern day version in their shooting range – the Ettrick shooting jacket, which comes in cinder, wheat and highland check, has kept the belted style to give more support for carrying heavy items in the large lower pockets. Cost £340.00
http://www.dsdundee.com/

http://www.bookster.co.uk/

You can go for a tailored shooting jacket with one shoulder panel in leather for the shotgun or rifle, usually with matching elbow patches and large outer pockets such as this Bookster shooting jacket (http://www.bookster.co.uk/),......

Stretch technical tweed jacket http://www.musto.com/

....... but usually they are more relaxed such as the Musto stretch technical tweed jacket. It has 3% lycra for a more comfortable fit whilst shooting and has a Teflon water-repellent finish. The jacket features microfleece lined handwarmer pockets, two internal poacher’s pockets, an inner zipped security pocket and an inbreast pocket. It comes in 2 patterns that offer great camouflage:- Karsten and Renwick Tweed . Cost £400.00 http://www.musto.com/










New Lightweight washable tweeds
Tweed is a heavy fabric but now there are new lightweight tweeds, which can also be machine washed rather than the normal end-of-the-season dry clean.


Lightweight jacket http://www.musto.com/


Musto’s lightweight machine-washable tweed shooting jacket is made out of Scottish tweed (96%wool, 4% nylon) and can be machine washed at 30C, but still remains waterproof, windproof and breathable. The fibres and barbs are coated in a plasticising process to keep them smooth and flexible after the wash. Available in the Renway Tweed colourways. £450.00
http://www.musto.com/







Lightweight Barbour jacket http://www.barbour.com/


Barbour also has a shooting jacket in lightweight washable Berwick tweed with a quilted lining of 50g polyester wadding. Colourways: Olive with orange check; forest with orange check and Herringbone with red check (shown).

Full article on http://www.eclipsemagazine.co.uk/ under men's fashion.

Country Tweeds - the colours

Tweed traditionally comes in muted earthy and autumnal colours which suits men with warm and muted colouring. This ranges from the pale freckled face, rosy cheeked and warm olives to warm black complexions.Hair colour softly blends with the complexion from mousey fair, reds and gingers, to deep warm browns. Eye colours range from greens, hazels and browns.

http://www.brooksbrothers.com/

Keep the warm muted colouring with shirts and jumpers to complement the look - demonstrated here by a Brooks Brothers Harris tweed sports jacket teamed with an orange sweater. www.brooksbrothers.com



But don’t worry if your colouring is not warm and muted, there are some tweeds out there in bolder brights and cooler colours – you just have to look harder:

DSDundee Alford jacket from http://www.hubshop.co.uk/

DS Dundee has an Alford peaked lapel jacket in navy herringbone tweed which will work well for the deep but cooler complexions. Match with bolder bright colour shirts or pure white to create a high contrast look.





Ash Vanguard coat from http://www.dsdundee.com/



The DS Dundee Vanguard Tweed double-breasted coat shows how the different colours can produce different effects. Their ash herringbone is light, bright and cool, contrasting with the mid-brown gamekeeper three-piece tweed suit – great for guys with a bright and high-contrast colouring...

Cinder Vanguard coat from http://www.dsdundee.com/

..Their cinder herringbone is deep, warm and muted, blending with the walnut tweed suit – so great for guys with warm and low contrast colouring.

The ash shade (above) suits this model’s Celtic colouring better but he doesn’t look too bad in the cinder shade only because he’s teamed it with a bright white shirt to give more of a contrast.

Viyella tweed jacket

If you already have a tweed jacket in a warm colour, just team it with cooler shades of pinks and blues to add more contrast and brightness.

Viyella has done this for you with their brown tweed jacket made of European wool, by adding a bright purple and pink windowpane check and purple lining. Just pick out these colours for your shirts, ties etc.

http://www.viyella.co.uk/fcp/product/viyella/Jackets-and-Coats/Brown-and-Purple-Check-Jacket/1362

http://www.tkmaxx.com/

And for the guys who have cool complexions but cannot take deep colours, then go for something like this TKMaxx jacket in a soft light grey with pale red windowpane check.

Full article on ww.eclipsemagazine.co.uk under men's fashion

Alternatives on Amazon:

Country Tweeds - patterns & textures

 

Cinder herringbone tweed coat and walnut brown Robert Noble Tweed suit from. www.dsdundee.com 

Tweed Patterns

When Prince Albert purchased Balmoral estate in 1848, every English gentleman (who could afford it that is) wanted to own a Scottish estate and.......

Balmoral Tweed pattern from www.bookster.co.uk

when he designed the Balmoral Tweed  around 1850, it became the trend to have your own estate tweed. And unlike tartan, everyone can wear any estate tweed.

Lomond Tweed from www.bookster.co.uk

Larger guys (tall or in weight) should go for the plainer tweeds or the larger checks in keeping with their frame such as this Lomond tweed. The smaller checks will just make you look larger than you are.

Cairn Tweed from www.bookster.co.ukAdd caption

Smaller guys (short or in weight) should avoid the larger checks as these will just drown their frame and go for the smaller checks instead, such as the Cairn tweed.

 Tweed patterns range from the mottled plain, flecked, herringbone and hound’s tooth (or dogtooth), to plaid, tartan and checks.


Tweed textures

Thick and hairy or smooth and silky? No I’m not talking about whether to shave or not, but tweed fabrics!

Thompson ticket pocket jacket from www.dsdundee.com

The thick hairy tweed fabrics are heavier and have more texture so will add bulk, good for the skinnier guy. A good example is this Thompson ticket pocket jacket from DS Dundee – a Harris Tweed of dark brown hairy herringbone with windowpane check red and blue running through it.

Shetland check 3 button jacket from www,barbour.com

The heavier or more rounded guys should go for the lighter less textured tweeds, such as Barbour’s medium-weight Shetland check three-button tailored jacket....

Country Tweed sports jacket from www.barbour.com

or the less-structured soft country tweed sports jacket in light brown.

Full article on www.eclipsemagazine.co.uk under men's fashion

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Country Tweeds- the intro

Think Tweed and you think of the English country gent, although it was the Scottish and Irish who first wove this coarse twill wool cloth in the 18^th Century.

But it was the English Gentry who took this fabric to their hearts and by the 1840s had made the wearing of tweed for country sports popular.

Harris Tweed certification mark from DS Dundee

This fashion trend was all down to the astute Lady Dunmore who saw the potential of this hard-wearing and water-resistant fabric as great outerwear for hunting, fishing and shooting. And as she had acquired her late husband’s estate on the Isle of Harris, she was eager to promote the now famous Harris Tweed to her peers.
Today Harris Tweed is the only fabric still woven by hand and is made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. To regulate and protect the fabric against imitations, the Harris Tweed Orb certification mark was created in 1909 and is the oldest British mark of its kind. So when buying Harris Tweed, check it has the certification mark.

www.edeandravenscoft.co.uk

Tweed has come a long way from just being worn for country sports; it is now universally acceptable as smart casual attire in both the country and the city. Ede & Ravenscroft’s country tweed jacket (£350) and waistcoat (£150) is looking good for city life.
And the name Tweed? – Well the story goes that it was a London merchant who started calling the fabric ‘tweed’ around 1830 after he misread the word ‘tweel’ (Scottish spelling for twill) or ‘tweeled’ in a letter from a Scottish cloth manufacturer and assumed the fabric was named after the nearby river Tweed. The cloth then was advertised as Tweed and the name stuck.

Full article found on mens fashion www.eclipsemagazine.co.uk

Harris Tweed on Amazon:

New Look's SS11 beachwear collection

It's the New Year and thoughts now turn to summer holidays. So get ready and check out New Look's beachwear.

Get noticed in these yellow board shorts and red plimsolls, teamed with a surf strip tee and white hooded long sleeve tee.

Or go floral in these blue/white hibiscus board shorts shown here with white mesh tee, grey striped hoodie and blue flip flops.
And if you don't fancy getting wet surfing the waves there is the fleece shorts option:

Vintage inspired colourful dip dye vest, blue fleeced shorts, yellow flip flops and beaded necklace.

Blue tee with custom made surf applique, green fleece shorts, aviator sunglasses, yellow plimsolls and bracelets.
All you need to do now is book that holiday!

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