Dashing Tweeds

[Dinerman]

These have come up before, but I couldn't find a thread about them.
It's pricey, a coat costs £850, but in general, what do you think of these suits? Of the fabric? I think it's an interesting, novel idea, and I like how they mix classic and modern elements.

http://www.dashingtweeds.co.uk/
slanted jacket pockets

convertible pants

zip pants pocket

Fabric lit up by a flash

same suit in normal light

 

[KeyGrip]

I like that last pattern. Almost like raindrop damascus.

 

[reetpleat]

Kind of cool, but without using a heavier weight fabric, they just don't hang right to my eye.

 

[H.Johnson]

Well, there's tweed and there's tweed... I can't imagine many practiced tweed wearers beating a path to their door.

 

[Creeping Past]

I like the idea more than the products.

The full-length pleat on the convertible trousers looks like a useful practical invention, though. I expect if it were a feature of 1920s/30s mens' clothing — was this a passing fashion at any stage? — it would be embraced by many as a very good way to maximise leg movement and avoid creasing, etc., while retaining a civilian cut rather than introducing something military-looking into the mix.

Does that last para make any sense at all? Ah well... I've a rotten cold at the moment and this is as good as my writing gets. :eusa_doh:

 

[scotrace]

I like

The more I look the more I see to like. Interesting fabrics, unusual cuts. Waistcoats with lapels, wide lapel jackets, great stuff.

 

[H.Johnson]

I like the idea more than the products.

Hear, hear. A massive lost opportunity in my opinion.

The idea of a tweed version of a mounted (HC) greatcoat is inspirational and has (to me) enormous appeal. The result is (again in my opinion) derisory.

Kirsty McDougall has both heritage and potential as a weaver. These tweeds are (see previous comments) the sort of tweed that unmarried aunts wore to W.I. meetings in my day.

I'm getting old. I don't see anything traditional or vintage inspired here at all. Why bother when traditional manufacturers are still producing great tweed garments?

 

[Creeping Past]

Having said what I did, I should qualify it and say I do like their McDougall check, which I mentioned in a similar thread earlier this year (where do they disappear to?). This is an inspired version of the tweeds we all know and love. It's a contemporary classic.

I suppose what I was struggling to suggest earlier was that, on reflection (no lumatwill pun intended), I wouldn't wear a dashing tweed — not because it's not great fabric, but because there's rather a lot of me, both vertically and, at some angles, horizontally, and that'd probably be too much snazzy tweed for the human eye to take in at once.

It's wonderful seeing independent weavers making a go of it. I hope they're thriving.

 

[MEDIUMMYND]

Kind of cool, but without using a heavier weight fabric, they just don't hang right to my eye.

Spot on but i do like the look of the green suit in the background of the first picture.

 

[Edward]

I'm not a fan of the full length pleat on the trouser, though otherwise they look nice. I also don't care for the zip on the trousers, though I can see it being a useful feature if it could be concealed to produce a more traditional look. I'd be curious as to who their customers would be, as it seems to me that the market for tweed suits is much more traditionalist. On the other hand, there's long been a market for the Combat Kilt, so.... [huh]

 

[H.Johnson]

But surely it's 'city tweed' like this that is putting traditional independent weavers out of of business?

I can foresee a cottage industry of weavers springing up in Hampstead as fast as weaving sheds on Harris are closing their dooors for the last time. Is that a good thing?

A footnote - the 'Scooter Coat' costs about twice what a good, functional country tweed three piece suit from a good maker would cost.

It's wonderful seeing independent weavers making a go of it. I hope they're thriving.

 

[H.Johnson]

An aside. I showed this to a Scottish friend in his nineties, who has worn tweed since he was a wee boy.

His response, 'That's nae tweed - it's patterned cloth!' nicely mirrors Truman Capote's summary of Jack Kerouac's work; 'That's not writing, it's typing'.

Whatever anyone may say to me, I feel that this company's work somehow lacks the essence of 'tweediness' - it's true purpose as country work wear. I will also paraphrase, 'You can take the country out of the tweed, but you can't take the tweed out of the country'. City tweed just doesn't do it for me -it's like modern designer jeans compared to 1930s 'Can't Bust 'em' or 'Boss of the Road' jeans. Just my opinion.

 

[dit dah]

Surely these are simply "fun"? You'd be shot if you got caught sporting anything like this in the Hebrides. One of the cloths is actually named "poacher" lol Me thinks not, unless you are poaching cappuccinos.

I have family on Uist so I'm with Mr Johnson, tweed is tweed, not green spleckledy cloth.

Buy proper tweed and support the weavers (not the folk band). Then take it to a proper local tailor and support them too.

Incidentally you should go to Harris if you can. The last lot of cloth I was brought back from there, enough for a three piece, cost £6. Oh and it's one of the most beautiful places on Earth. So actually, on reflection, don't go there.

 

[H.Johnson]

Buy proper tweed and support the weavers (not the folk band). Then take it to a proper local tailor and support them too.
QUOTE]

So what's wrong with The Weavers, then? I used to quite like their version of 'Sloop John B'. And where would Lonnie Donegan have been without their 'Rock Island Line'?

 

[Creeping Past]

Weaving is about as traditional a craft as its possible to practice. I'm all for independent weavers, wherever they work. Tweed's been woven all over the UK, including in other parts of Scotland outside the islands, for years and years.

Stating a preference for hairy Harris* is one thing, but the tweed tradition is surely bigger and wider than the collective urge/preference for a fabric with a very particular feel to it.

And speaking of tradition, where would Lonnie and The Weavers have been without Huddie "Leadbelly" Leadbetter, and possibly others as well, who they 'borrowed' "Rock Island Line" from?

* Apologies, this didn't come out quite how I intended...

 

[dit dah]

Apologies Mr. J for my post-Victrola ignorance

Indeed who can forget On Top Of Old Smoky?

Can't see Mr. Seeger in one of these dashing tweeds though..

 

[dit dah]

Apologies then to all non Hebridean tweel weavers, especially the Irish, who weave a darn fine yarn.

My name is Dit_Dah and I am addicted to hairy Harris

Everyone happy now?

 

[Erik]

"I like that last pattern. Almost like raindrop damascus."

That comment hints at a knife collection worth posting.

 

[KeyGrip]

Haven't quite found the right subforum yet.

 

[Matt Deckard]

What is good is that you can see a definite style emerging. I know a lot of people don't like the 70's, though that era had a strong style influence that can't be denied. It may look hideous to some eyes today, though when I look around at the public today and see how little uniformity that there is in men's dresswear and how much uniformity there is in general public casual wear I think about how nice it would be to have a time like the 70's back where you knew that you were sort of in the crowd and dressed in a suit and tie that had a universal style even if it was of the time. I'm tired of the boring suits we've been seeing on the leaders in society... We need that old FDR three piece Double breasted with the wide legged trousers and the brown pinstripe fabric of today. Most leaders of the world that earned their position rather than had it bestowed are often considered the risk takers... It's a shame we can't see them take bigger risks in their fashion tastes by pushing style in the public eye and wearing suits with more adventurous cuts like those above.