Sources: Breanish Tweed

For twenty years, Savile Row tailor Anderson & Sheppard was the only well-known source for lightweight (11 ounce) Harris tweed jacketing. Hand woven in the Outer Hebrides, Breanish tweed, as it is known, was a classic artisanal product. That's their lambswool Howard of York pattern in the photograph.

With the recent retirement of founder Ian Sutherland, the Breanish Tweed company is now operated by Anna Murray and Iain Finlay Macleod. The pair have added a new web site and are offering cloth online, without changing the qualities that have made Breanish tweed popular with men who enjoy wearing their tweed jackets in the shoulder seasons.

In addition to the online offerings, the Breanish folks will endeavor to weave cloth to a customer's specification, with a minimum of 48 meters single width - enough cloth for ten odd jackets. I am currently working with them to design a length of lambswool in a gray herringbone with sea foam green accents. Anyone interested in participating in this project should email will at dynend.com.

A Friday Suit

An older 3 roll 2 Alan Flusser suit made from a still older Hunters of Brora 15 ounce dress tweed. Worn without the vest on a dank Friday in San Francisco. Small burgundy on white check on the Turnbull & Asser shirt, pink silk pocket square (also from T&A), Nicky gold on burgundy necktie and Edward Green Rye oxfords in chestnut antique.

Hunters of Brora was a tweed mill in Northern Scotland that began operations in 1901 and enjoyed an excellent reputation. The original mill was shuttered in 1985 in response to a general decline in the European textile industry and the market's move to lighter cloth, and several attempts to re-start the business have enjoyed little success.

This make of jacket, which Flusser advertised as his Anderson & Sheppard influenced model, proved to be not very true to the original and too boxy for my taste. Like the textile market, I have moved on. But I still love this cloth.

Harris Tweed

I've had the pictured stack of Harris tweed swatches sitting in my office for a couple of years and thought it time to do something with them. So, here they are (click on the photo for a close-up that shows the colors better).

Beloved of American trads, Harris designs are relatively generic. Unlike the district checks, Harris tweed is not intended to disappear into the background "on the hill" or to identify a particular estate. This particular batch is 14 ounce (I know the tags say 7 ozs but Harris is woven on single width looms so that number is doubled to make it comparable to most cloth on the market) tweed from Harrison's of Edinburgh, in a variety of colorations. I especially like the lovat solid at the bottom but I don't know if I'll ever get around to having a jacket made from it.

Harris is distinguished as the only tweed with a brand. It's defined by law as "hand woven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the islands of Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra and their several purtenances (The Outer Hebrides) and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides."

Perhaps the biggest contribution of the Harris ecology to the world at large is not the tweed so much as the employment that the cloth provides for so much of the population of these remote islands. A substantial cottage industry of weavers works on looms at their homes to produce lengths of tweed in weights ranging from 12 ounces up to 20. While the looms are 'pedalled' by the weavers with no external power source allowed, the cloth provided to the weavers has been machine dyed and spun using methods similar to those of any other textile operation. And after the weaving is complete, bundles of cloth are collected for machine finishing at a processing center before they are sent on to be turned into all the variety of jackets, caps and other goods that the stuff is known for. The cloth is fine but the "hand woven" bit is over-hyped.

In the United States, Ben Silver among others offers a variety of ready to wear Harris tweed odd jackets (the cloth is too loosely woven for trousers) for the not terribly outrageous price of $595 each.

Quotation: Scottish District Checks

"It was in the emptiness caused by this drift that the sportsmen of the richer South discovered the possibilities of the wild Highlands as a place for sport. The chieftains and old owners drifted to Edinburgh and to London and found that they could not support their old state when transplanted to the far wealthier society of the South. They found many of the nobility and gentry of the South, led by the Royal Family, willing to rent or buy their vacant mountains, moors and rivers. Thus was established a new race of masters of the Northern Lands. One of these new Ladies of the Manor, as her grandson said, was worried because she had no right to a tartan. It was the long-established duty of the Chief to clothe his retainers. There were shepherds looking after the sheep that had gradually spread throughout the Highlands, and these shepherds wore the old traditional plaids of the Borders from which they had come. Those plaids were usually four yards long and were worn wrapped around the body. In the folds a lamb or a lassie could be sheltered. These plaids were most often a small black-and-white check. Our lady saw the shepherds, and to seperate her men from the sheepmen who were not part of her family, she thought of the device of putting a scarlet check on the shepherds' plaid. In this simple way young Miss Balfour started a movement that spread right across Scotland and finally produced the great and varied series of designs we now know as our District Checks."

-Our Scottish District Checks by E. S. Harrison

Dressing The Day After

Welcome to 2008. Clothes for a late lunch the day following New Years Eve. Scottish Keeper's Tweed jacket with a silk knit necktie.


Worn with charcoal whipcord trousers, argyle socks and crepe soled bluchers.

Sources: Lawrence & Foster

I was pleased to learn that my formerly invisible-on-the-internet capmaker, the Yorkshire firm of Lawrence & Foster, has launched a website. Summer or winter, linen or tweed, if you're in need of head covering that's between a fedora and a baseball cap on the spectrum of clothing formality, this is a good place for it.

The L&F site is limited to four men's models (£38.00 to £40.00 ex VAT, or about $80) and four styles for women (£39.00 to £45.00 ex VAT, or $80-$90) in a variety of tweed, but the firm is not. I have cloth sent there and confirm the details by email. A few weeks later, hats appear. Each time, the execution has been flawless.

The great thing about a tweed cap of course is that it sheds a lot of water before it soaks through, a useful characteristic during the rainy season.

Recommended.

Can This Really Be The End?

Savile Row tailor Steven Hitchcock is showing a tweed car coat he recently made for a client.

According to the cloth's maker, Dashing Tweeds, the checks in the cloth's weave of wool worsted and reflective yarn reflect light, making the coat easy to see at night. London's double yellow-lines and red routes were chiselled up and matched to produce yarn shades that match the colors of the City.


It might not work for Bob Dylan in Mobile but it could be just the thing for Sir Paul McCartney to wear over his suit and sneakers in London.


Though I will say I have to admire the courage of the Dashing Tweed principal who permitted himself to be photographed wearing a purple checked jacket with matching knickers.

The Newest Cloth Club Project

The newest London Lounge Cloth Club project is a 15 ounce tweed woven by Scotland's Lovat Mill. As the photo shows, it's a tan and brown glen check with a red overcheck that's citified enough to go from country to town without hesitation. At least on Fridays.

In about a year my length of the cloth will become a vested suit. I like the look of a vest in country cloth and I hope the human race gets its act together to lick global warming so there are cool days on which to wear it.

"Wool" Neckties

Autumn begins the season for wool neckties, the best of which are cashmere or a mixture of cashmere and silk (I think of Irish poplin, a weave of silk and wool, as a spring and summer item so I'm not discussing them here). Of the pictured baker's dozen from my closet, eleven fall into the cashmere category, the red tie is pure wool and the light blue solid is camel hair.

The point of "wool" neckties is that they absorb light rather than reflect it, and that feature combined with the visible weave adds interest to combinations built around flannel or tweed jackets. They are particularly effective combined with a paisley or hunting pattern silk pocket square.

Like many men, I learned to appreciate the color of silk neckties first, for some reason that probably had something to do with the opinions of various young women. But I've since learned to be my own critic, and I like the look of wool for Autumn.

More on Blended Dressing

At one point during the 1930's it was said that to be considered "best dressed" a man had to be able to wear the loudest of checked suits without attracting attention. Men that could do so had mastered the art of the blend, combining elements of dress so that none of them stood out from the overall image.

For example, the late Duke of Windsor was able to wear tweed suits with very strong patterns, patterns that would be flashy on other men, and look well dressed at the same time. He was expert at blending.

The secret to the blend is that each element in an ensemble should relate to the other. The first illustration is a combination of the sort favored by the Duke, a black and white plaid suit with a red overcheck. The shirt has a gray body with a white collar, picking up two of the suit's tones, and the necktie's red ground picks up the overcheck. The combination works to reduce the strength of the suit's pattern.

In the second illustration, our man's black lord's hat and shoes relate to the black in his suit. He is wearing an odd vest that picks up the brown in his suit's overcheck. His shirt collar is the same as the white in the suit's weave, and the shirt body is similar in tone to the waistcoat. The look is subdued though the suit is anything but.

These are more extreme examples than may be appropriate in many work places but they are intended to make a point. You may not have a checked suit but you can still see the effect of blending for yourself.

The next time you're shopping for a suit, take out a navy solid and place it next to a white shirt and a maroon necktie. Then lay down a blue flannel with a white chalk stripe, a blue end on end shirt and a maroon necktie with white dots. The combination of the flannel's texture and the white in the suit, the shirt, and the necktie work together to create an effect that's considerably more sophisticated than that of the three solids.

Buy the flannel.

Reader Questions

From Peter

"I live in the the Northeastern U.S. and would appreciate your advice on the top 4 or 5 classic and versatile patterns for sports jackets."

Since you live in a place with seasons, you'll need jackets for both warm and cool weather. Consider these:

- Navy 13 ounce wool
- Brown 14-15 ounce gun club
- Brown 14-15 ounce Harris tweed herringbone

- Tan 14 ounce linen

- Navy 10 ounce fresco

The first three are for cool weather and the others for warm.

From Pat

"This spring in a fit of absolute madness I had a winter white, super 140, odd jacket made. The jacket is double breasted 6x1 shawl collared with side vents.

My original thought was for a dinner jacket like substitute. I have no intention of using it to replace a formal jacket, but for some reason I felt I would like an off white odd summer jacket when my wife and I go to dinner, or out for an evening. My question is do I dress it up with navy trousers and look like a sap who doesn't understand formal attire, or wear linen or colored poplin pants and risk looking like the help?

Should I keep it in the closet, as a reminder of a summer folly, or wear it with confidence with...."

The shawl collar makes it a dinner jacket in my book. You don't mention whether you had flaps on the pockets but you can always stick them inside. Wear the jacket with black trousers with a grosgrain stripe, a pleated white shirt, black grosgrain bow tie and evening shoes. And I'll bet you never get a request to refill someone's drink.

Sunday Tweeds

I've had half a dozen requests for more "what am I wearing" style photos since the Rumpled in the Country picture. So, since the muse is rather lazy today, here's a shot from earlier this year. It's a cool but sunny Sunday afternoon. We've just finished lunch and are about to drive home with the top open. Which is hopefully a satisfactory explanation for the scarf and gloves worn with a very loud suit.

I'm not very pleased with the shoulders and chest on this jacket. I think the make is fine for lighter cloth for summer, but less suited to heavier fabric. My next tweed will be a gun club jacket from Peter Harvey this Fall.

A Double Breast Pocketed Jacket

A nephew of mine begins his Ph.D. program at Michigan this Fall. I reminded him that he'd need a tweed jacket and recommended a look at the film The Good Shepherd for a professorial example. When I went back to look myself, I was struck by something I hadn't noticed the first time. Costume designer Ann Roth has Sir Michael Gambon, who plays the English professor, in a double breast pocketed odd jacket. Never saw one of those before.

Does one wear it with two pocket squares or leave them both empty?

New Cloth Club Deliveries

To my delight, two packages containing the newest completed projects from Michael Alden's Cloth Club arrived recently.

The photo, which was posted by The Doctor to the Cloth Club and Limited Edition forum at the London Lounge, shows the Club's blue-gray triple overcheck flannel at the top. It's a 14/15 ounce suiting that I'm seeing in my mind's eye as a vested suit, single breasted, with peak lapels and hacking pockets on the jacket.

The bottom cloth is a 650 gram (19 ounce) gun club tweed. I'm thinking about a three button single breasted odd jacket, half lined, with buttoning patch pockets and leather button.

In addition, M. Alden has two tweed and three flannel projects under way, The flannels are the Eden in Paris windowpane, a very light gray flannel with blue accents for Spring, and a black on gray reverse chalk stripe. The tweeds are a check patterned after a favorite country suit of the late Duke of Windsor, and a modified tweed version of the Club's original flannel project, a tan glen check with a blue overcheck.

For more information. contact Alden at the London Lounge.

Reader Questions

From Sam

"Since my lifestyle does not require me to wear a suit on a daily basis, I find odd jackets to be more useful and versatile than suits. I prefer a 1-button jacket a-la Huntsman style and will most likely commission a notch lapel jacket with patch pockets and side vents from my tailor. What would you say is the quintessential fall jacketing?"

Since it's for Fall, the jacket should probably be tweed (like the one on the Prince of an actor in the photo) unless you've already got an abundance of tweed jackets.

Gray Harris tweed (or a black and white houndstooth) is useful if you're going to wear the coat principally while earning a living. If it's for the country, or for a campus, consider a Breanish or a Donegal in tan or orange (like the ones from Andrew Elliot Ltd).


From Raymond

"I thought that perhaps you could help me navigate a situation. I ordered a few made to measure shirts from a well known artisan and the sleeves are simply too short. Everything else is great. Is this a do over? Or are shirtmakers able to simply make new sleeves? Should I insist on new shirts?"

First order? Since you didn't mention it, I presume there was not a sample shirt made before the rest of the order to get the fit right. In that case, if you did nothing to cause the sleeves to be too short, the maker should fix them at its expense. Reputable shirtmakers will do so, and hopefully you are dealing with one of them.

If they do agree to fix the problem, how they fix it will be up to them. They should be able to replace the sleeves without you being able to tell any difference.

The Cloth Club

About two years ago, Michael Alden of The London Lounge web site wanted a flannel suit in a large format Prince of Wales check and couldn't find suitable cloth anywhere. He solicited a dozen other London Lounge members to join him and have a length of the cloth woven to his specification. The success of that first project was the stimulus for The Cloth Club, perhaps the world's only informal organization commissioning custom weaving of cloth for classic men's clothing.

Fifty years ago, tailors accounted for much of the consumption of suiting cloth, and the cloth merchants offered them a wide variety of patterns and weaves. Today, the cloth suppliers focus on the ready to wear market, whose long production runs are incompatible with unique fabrics. They weave plenty of blues and grays but fewer of the patterned suitings of the past.

By commissioning its own cloth, The Cloth Club is doing what some of the large tailoring houses have done for years. Savile Row's Anderson & Sheppard usually offers several specially commissioned worsteds and Huntsman is famed for its house tweeds while Mariano Rubinacci of Naples is known for his house hopsacks. The difference of course is that Cloth Club members can take their fabric to the tailor of their choice for a "cut, make, & trim, " the tailoring term for the process of making a garment from customer-provided cloth.

Since the first commission, The Cloth Club has delivered a large scale black and white glen check tweed, and a gray flannel with a large blue overcheck, pictured in the drawing at the upper left. Current projects include a gray flannel with a blue windowpane called 'Eden in Paris' after the drawing to the lower left, a gun club tweed for odd jackets, an off-white flannel trouser cloth with blue and gray accents, and a striped worsted suiting.

To inquire about participation in The Cloth Club, contact Michael Alden through the web site.

Scotland's Contribution to Classic Clothing

Most of my favorite suits and jackets are too informal to be worn in office settings, probably because they remind me that I won't be chained to a desk while I'm wearing them. I like linen in warm weather and in cool weather, tweed.

Tweed is a moisture-resistant and very durable woollen cloth used for suitings, odd jackets and overcoats. Developed in Scotland and Ireland, it was originally woven from Cheviot sheep whose wool produces a relatively rough twill that may have a check or herringbone pattern, or a plain ground comprised of a mixture of different colored yarns, often with an overcheck. Later, the term was expanded to include smoother cloth from Saxony or merino wool that is often woven as a Glenurquahart design (also known as a glen check). Tweed weights range from heavy estate tweeds at 22 ounces per yard down to relatively refined suitings at 11 or 12 ounces.

The wide variety of tweed patterns that we enjoy today were developed beginning in the 19th century to identify the family members and staff of individual estates in Scotland. These cloths were made for heavy duty outdoors and had to stand up to the harsh climate as well as disappear into the local countryside when worn for hunting.

Tweed clothing is as useful as ever for Fall and Winter wear in the country, on the weekend, for travel and in less formal situations such as university settings. Jacket stylings can include sporting details such as slanted and patch pockets, bellows backs and half belts. The rough texture pairs well with wool and casual neckties and silk paisley pocket squares.

The photo at the beginning of this post illustrates five tweed suits and jackets, including

• a 15 ounce brown and gray twill suit with blue and white threads
• a 15 ounce green suit with orange, blue and red checks
• a 15 ounce black and white glen check
• a 22 ounce odd jacket in yellow with blue and white ovechecks
• a 22 ounce odd jacket black and brown check on a tan ground, with red and blue overchecks

The brown and the black and white suits can be worn for casual Fridays in the city. The others are better suited for a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities on a brisk winter's day. Scotland's principal contribution to classic men's clothing will keep you warm, dry and well dressed.