What Is Tweed?

How is tweed made?

Tweed is made by spinning wool into yarn, usually dyeing it before weaving, and weaving it into a rough-surfaced cloth, most often in a variation of twill. Britannica notes that most tweeds are woven from dyed yarn, though some are dyed in the piece after weaving. Yarn counts, twist, colours and the number of warp and weft threads all vary widely.

The cloth grew out of the Scottish Borders. Heriot-Watt University’s Textile Collection says a woven woollen industry existed there from medieval times, and that tweed took its first look from the black-and-white checked shawls, or plaids, worn by shepherds in the Borders hills. The industry grew quickly after the 1850s, helped by new machinery, investment and the railways.

The main weave and colour effects

• Twill variations: Britannica lists herringbone, diamonds, chevrons, cross twills and checks among the modified twills used for tweed.
• Checks: the shepherd’s black-and-white check developed into District Checks, which Heriot-Watt says were worn as uniforms on Scottish country estates.
• Colour effects: Britannica lists stripe, marl, fleck and heather effects in many tones. Britannica calls the last of these “mingled heather effects”, the look also found in heathered cloth.

Where does the name tweed come from?

Britannica and Heriot-Watt University both trace the name to a London clerk’s mistake over the word for twill, but they disagree on the details. Britannica says a clerk drafting an order or invoice for “tweels”, the Scots word for twill, accidentally wrote “tweeds” in 1826. Heriot-Watt University’s Textile Collection places it in the 1830s, at the London merchant James Locke, where a clerk misread “twill” as “tweed”.

Britannica adds that the cloth was made in the Tweed Valley but that the name does not come from the River Tweed itself. On that account, the river and the name share a region, not an origin.

Heriot-Watt University’s Textile Collection also records a legend that credits Sir Walter Scott with the industry’s development: he wore trousers of the cloth in London in the 1820s.

What are the properties of tweed?

Tweed is a medium-to-heavy cloth with a rough surface texture, and Britannica says advances in dyeing and finishing have produced a wide variety of stable, hard-wearing tweed cloths. Its other properties depend on the fibre: Britannica notes that most tweeds are pure wool, while a growing number blend wool with cotton, rayon or other manufactured fibres, each added for a particular property.

• Weight: medium to heavy.
• Surface: rough, with visible texture from the yarn and weave.
• Colour: mostly woven from yarn dyed before weaving; some tweeds are piece-dyed.
• Durability: modern dyeing and finishing have produced many stable, hard-wearing tweeds.

How is tweed graded or measured?

Britannica describes tweeds by place and breed names rather than by numbered grades. It lists “Scottish”, “Welsh”, “Cheviot”, “Saxony”, “Harris”, “Yorkshire”, “Donegal” and “West of England” as names that each cover a wide range of woollen and mixture cloths. Britannica says the place of manufacture largely determines a tweed’s character.

Of these, Harris Tweed has a legal definition in UK law. Section 7 of the Harris Tweed Act 1993 defines it as a tweed handwoven by islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished there, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun there. It must also have any further characteristics that regulations require for the Harris Tweed trade mark.

How does tweed appear on a clothing label?

“Tweed” is a cloth name, not a fibre name, so the fibre-content line on the label lists the fibres, such as wool, rather than the word tweed. The rules differ by jurisdiction.

United States

Under the US Wool Products Labeling Rules (16 CFR 300.3(a)), a wool product’s label must show, among other things, its fibre content, the manufacturer’s name or registered identification number (RN), and the country where it was processed or manufactured. Fibres under 5 per cent are normally not named, but the percentage of wool or recycled wool must always be stated, even below 5 per cent (16 CFR 300.3(b)).

European Union

Under Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, “wool” means fibre from sheep’s or lambs’ fleeces, or a mixture of that fibre with the animal hairs listed in Annex I, such as cashmere, mohair and alpaca. A product labelled “100 %” or “pure” may still contain up to 2 per cent extraneous fibres. Article 7(2) raises that allowance to 5 per cent for products that have been through a carding process, in both cases only if the extraneous fibres are technically unavoidable and not added routinely.

How do you tell good tweed from poor tweed?

Start with the fibre label, then look closely at the yarn and the weave. These checks tell you what you are buying; none is a guarantee on its own.

1. Read the sewn-in label. “Tweed” on a swing tag says nothing about fibre. Check the fibre line for wool and for any cotton, rayon or other fibres blended in.
2. Look into the yarn. Hold the cloth under good light and look for colour that sits in the threads themselves, not printed on the surface. Britannica notes most tweeds are woven from dyed yarn.
3. Find the weave. Follow the lines across the face of the cloth. A twill shows diagonal lines; a herringbone reverses direction in columns; a check such as houndstooth shows notched blocks of colour.
4. Check a protected name. If a garment claims to be Harris Tweed, the legal definition requires pure virgin wool and handweaving in the Outer Hebrides. Red flag: a “Harris Tweed” claim on a garment whose fibre line lists a blend for the tweed cloth.

Tweed vs bouclé: what is the difference?

Tweed names a type of cloth; bouclé names a looped yarn and the cloth made from it, so a fabric can be both. The V&A catalogues a Chanel haute couture coat from spring–summer 1961 as “bouclé wool tweed”.

How do you care for tweed?

Follow the care label, clean wool tweed before you store it and keep it somewhere it can breathe. The Woolmark Company gives this advice for wool clothes in storage:

• Clean garments before storing them, to prevent odours, stains and a build-up of dirt.
• Use cotton or wool storage bags, which let clothes breathe; vacuum bags do not.
• Use cedar against moths; cedar hangers also help absorb moisture from suits.
• Fold rather than hang garments going into long storage, so they keep their shape.

Is tweed sustainable?

There is no single answer, because tweed is a cloth type, not a certification; its impact depends on the fibre and how the cloth was made. The label is the best evidence you have. In the EU, “virgin wool” or “fleece wool” may only describe wool that has never been part of a finished product, and a blend may use the term only if that wool makes up at least 25 per cent of its weight. So a “virgin wool” tweed tells you its wool has not been recycled from a finished product.