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 when he designed the Balmoral tweed (see below) around 1850, it became the trend to have your own estate tweed.
However, unlike tartan, everyone can wear any estate tweed. Tweed patterns range from the mottled plain, flecked, herringbone and hound’s tooth (or dogtooth), to plaid, tartan and checks.
(Pictured top right, Cinder herringbone tweed coat and walnut brown Robert Noble tweed with a delicate blue windowpane check from DS Dundee. www.dsdundee.com )
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Balmoral tweed pattern 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. |
 | 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 textures
Thick and hairy or smooth and silky? No I’m not talking about chins but tweed fabrics!
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. |  |
| 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…. |  |
…or the less-structured soft country tweed sports jacket in light brown. |  |
Assembling your tweed ensemble:
(click links below)
 |  Karen Grace is a Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for www.frumpytofunky.com and fashion writer for http://mensstyling.blogspot.com She studied Personal Styling at the London College of Fashion and is a registered affiliate member of the Federation of Image Professionals International. For personal shopping and styling services you can reach her via frumpy to funky on [email protected]and |
Allison is the Publisher of Eclipse Magazine. She loves going to the Races and is learning to bet (despite being officially the worst bettor in the History of the Universe), there’s a lot more to learn…
