After we visited Johnston’s of Elgin earlier this 12 months, their archive room was a pleasing shock. In addition to previous material books and ledgers, it included a show on the historical past of tweed, and going by way of this with the archivist jogged my memory of all of the pleasing particulars of the fabric I had absorbed years in the past.  

Given many readers gained’t be conversant in it, I assumed it will be good to make use of the show to revisit a few of the extra related factors – they make you admire issues like property tweeds, shepherd checks and gun-club checks, placing them into context. I additionally discover it charming how so lots of the checks developed from one sample to the subsequent, including parts or altering colors.

The oldest sample is the shepherd’s test, which was used for the ‘maud’ or plaid that staff wore for hundreds of years. It’s a easy crossweave of darkish and light-weight squares, with the sunshine being the creamy yellow of untreated wool, and the darkish both a darker breed or the sunshine one darkened with numerous pure dyes.

You may really see echoes of it in our English Tweed coat, because the white, brown and black in there are the pure colors of the cheviot sheep, the identical breed that was historically utilized in these previous shepherd’s checks.

Above is the poet and novelist James Hogg, carrying a shepherd’s maud.

That fundamental sample offered the premise within the nineteenth century for the primary district test, or property tweed. These had been developed as Scotland turned a preferred vacation spot throughout the Victorian period, and households renting estates developed them to uniform their workers. In contrast to many Scottish households, these guests had no hyperlink to a neighborhood tartan.

Janie Ellice designed the primary when she needed a uniform for her workers whereas renting the Invereshie aspect of Glen Feshie. She took the standard shepherd’s test and added a scarlet overcheck, giving it the title Glen Feshie. 

Over time the concept of making a tweed for a specific property proved a fruitful one, with a whole lot step by step being designed and adopted on completely different estates. Johnston’s wove a lot of them, they usually nonetheless publish a guide that was first developed in 1968 by a member of household, detailing all of them. 

Just a few years into this pattern for property tweeds, probably the most well-known tailoring one was created – the Glen Urquhart. This had been woven domestically for some time by an Elizabeth MacDougall, however turned the official tweed for Balmacaan Property within the Glen when the Countess of Seafield adopted it. (And sure, the property can also be the place the coat comes from.)

This explicit tweed went by way of a number of completely different and excessive profile variations. 

Edward VII visited the property when he was Prince of Wales and tailored his personal model, in brown and cream. He later shrunk it down, creating the small-scale model we see right now in tailoring. And Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor, later added overchecks in crimson and blue (and made it significantly common it within the US).

Right now, a model and not using a colored overcheck is often known as a glen test, whereas one with an overcheck is called a Prince of Wales. That is one a part of the story I’ve particularly written earlier than – once I had a swimsuit made by Henry Poole of their model (a burgundy overcheck – high picture above). 

Returning to the shepherd’s test sample, one step on was Coigach tweed (pronounced ‘coo-yach’) which later turned the Gun Membership test. 

This was first woven by Johnstons in 1846. Its variation on the shepherd’s test was a reasonably easy one – simply turning the darkish strains into two or extra completely different colors. Property tweeds usually labored on this method, creating small variations on one another. 

The Coigach was navy and brown (second picture above), with the identical cream color as a shepherd’s test behind them. Different variations launched different colors, however there’s often not less than one darkish, one medium and one mild, to retain distinction. Typically if there’s a fourth color it’s used as a bigger test, a windowpane. My Ciardi jacket is not a conventional gun membership, however you see using an orange overcheck. 

The trendy title for the test got here when an American gun membership created their very own model in 1874. The dominance of that title right now might be partly right down to the dimensions of the US market, partly the truth that Coigach is so onerous to pronounce…

The subsequent actual change in property tweeds was created by the twelfth Lord Lovat, who designed one primarily based on the colors of flora round Loch Morar – primroses, bluebells, sand, bracken and birch. 

This was an homage to the panorama, however was additionally supposed to be efficient camouflage. The previous shepherd’s checks had been fairly good on this regard, as their natural colors and small checks meant they blurred into the panorama. However Lord Lovat needed to take it a step additional, mixing the colors right into a single melange yarn – so there’s no actual sample, only a melange of colors.

The numerous factor about this, not less than from a menswear perspective, was that the lovat tweed birthed lots of the browns and greens we now affiliate with nation clothes. From a historic perspective, it was most likely extra vital that it turned the forerunner for khaki uniforms within the the British army, with Scottish troopers being the primary to put on it as a substitute of the traditional vivid crimson. And variations of khaki have been utilized by armies world wide since. 

I generally overlook how historical past like this will have an effect on the way in which you are feeling about clothes. 

A connection to the way in which it was used previously provides clothes a right away authenticity, which is sweet. However it could possibly additionally inform the way you put on it – you suppose otherwise about city vs rural colors, for instance, if you find out about how they had been developed for that setting.

Studying easy methods to costume isn’t nearly standing in entrance of a mirror and making an attempt combos. It’s additionally in regards to the tradition across the garments, which informs how they work, what impression they’ve on others, and at some stage additionally how they give the impression of being to you. 

Thanks to Sarah Wilcock, the Archivist and Information Supervisor at Johnston’s, for her help and analysis.