If you could have only one Tweed suit ....

[st.tully]

I'm headed to London next month and have a few sartorial endeavours under consideration. One of which is a tweed suit. I live in the southern United States, so tweed is not really a staple of my wardrobe - but I'd like to have one heavy tweed suit. The quandary is which tweed. Let me start of by eliminating the dashing but loud Huntsman type tweeds - I'm a bit portly and I just don't think a strong check will be good for me.

I plan to commission a three piece and anticipate mixing it with odd trousers, plus-fours, odd waistcoats and perhaps a sleeveless cardigan.

I'm torn between something like the Duke of Windsor's tweed and a gun club tweed. Minimum weight 16oz. I have looked through the Hardy Alsport bunch and of course the LL cloths. I'm looking for suggestions and pictures for tweeds outside of these two sources.

Perhaps a "house fabric" will be the answer. I plan to visit Anderson and Sheppard and take a look at their house fabrics. Are there any other tailors, besides Huntsman, that have an interesting selection of house tweeds?

As far as which tailor I choose, it will probably be A&S or Steed. I'm quite happy with Poole for my business suits but I'm thinking this heavy tweed suit should be done in the softer style. I love the comfortable worn look of the tweed suit pictured in A&S's new book - a la Evelyn Waugh.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers, st.tully

[Concordia]

I think most of A&S's house tweeds are softer things better for jackets than trousers.

If you do see them, they should have a lot of W. Bill books. The medium-weights Cheviots and similar things should work very well. There might also be some more obscure suppliers that one of their sales people can point you to.

One place I've done a jacket from that is a little off-center is http://www.ardalanish.com. Not a fabulous bargain, but some nice-looking stuff that will adapt well to suit-wear.

[rogiercreemers]

I am very happy with my P&H Thornproof coat. It wears comfortably until about 20 degrees Celcius. Also, for pictures of many different tweeds, you could look at Bookster.

[davidhuh]

Dear St. Tully,

also consider Donegals. This cloth is less "loud" than some of the Scottish tweeds. Check what A&S has, but be sure to pay a visit to W. Bill on Sackville Street 23. This is tweed paradise

Norton & Sons also has a nice selection, as the owner is a Scotsman.

Good luck, David

[st.tully]

I certainly want to visit W.Bill. I have read that a tailor must accompany you there. Can the tailor just call and give you an introduction? I can imgine that I might like to spent a bit more time in W.Bill's basement than an A&S employee.

[Concordia]

I am very happy with my P&H Thornproof coat. It wears comfortably until about 20 degrees Celcius. Also, for pictures of many different tweeds, you could look at Bookster.

+1

[cathach]

I certainly want to visit W.Bill. I have read that a tailor must accompany you there. Can the tailor just call and give you an introduction? I can imgine that I might like to spent a bit more time in W.Bill's basement than an A&S employee.

I advise to ring ahead and ask if it would be possible. As W. Bill is owned by Smith Woollens you should be able to organise a visit through them as well.

Here is a source for Donegals as well: http://www.mageeireland.com/ & http://www.kevinandhowlin.com/ is a source of handwovens which might be more suitable for a jacket as opposed to a suit.

[davidhuh]

Dear St. Tully,

regarding Donegals, there is also Molloy & Sons, http://molloyandsons.com/

They do the LL Cloth Club Donegals, and what I just received from them is a dream of a cloth. You might still be able to jump on the wagon with the ongoing subscription (get in touch with Michael Alden quickly to check, he announced a re-run a few days ago). Otherwise, you find some of their cloth at W. Bill and from them directly.

Some Donegals are suitable for pants, you have to ask. But they all go very nicely as odd jackets worn with jeans or chinos.

cheers, David

[culverwood]

I have a P&H Hartwist suit which I am very happy with though it is not one for hot weather.

[st.tully]

I have a P&H Hartwist suit which I am very happy with though it is not one for hot weather.

Browsing the Hartwists now. Lovely cloth. Is your still offered?

http://www.harrisonsofedinburgh.com/collections.html

[Slewfoot]

I certainly want to visit W.Bill. I have read that a tailor must accompany you there. Can the tailor just call and give you an introduction? I can imgine that I might like to spent a bit more time in W.Bill's basement than an A&S employee.

One does not need to visit W. Bill with a tailor although it is advisable to call ahead of time.

I have my one 3-piece tweed suit in the making with Steed - the LL Agnelli tweed that is gray with navy windowpane. Greatly looking forward to Fall already.

[hectorm]

St. tully,
you are receiving good advice in this thread.
I would just add that if you are in the process of choosing your one and only tweed, you might want to browse the book, edited by Johnstons of Elgin, Scottish Estate Tweeds. It´s mainly pictures of tweeds with short notes about them. Besides getting good ideas about colors and patterns, you will also learn about their history and provenance. I believe this will make wearing your suit still more pleasurable.

http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Estate-T ... 0952532905

[cathach]

St. Tully,

Another thing to bear in mind when looking through cloth books is to know whether you are getting a woollen or a worsted tweed. There are many 'tweed look' cloths or 'worsted tweeds' which although they have their applications are not tweed. It is similar to the difference between a worsted flannel and a woollen flannel. A worsted spun yarn is woven into a tweed pattern and then heavily milled to give it that fuzzy/hairy finish.

A real woollen spun tweed with have that depth of colour and handle of that type of cloth whereas the faux tweed will not. Both have their applications, so I thought I'd mention that.

Remember as well that if you're keen on a suit softer tweeds such as Shetlands for example or handwoven Donegals may be better suited as jacketings. In any case to get the wear you want from a suit make sure to get enough cloth for two pairs of trousers. This can vary depending on if the cloth is a plain weave or a check pattern, which will need extra cloth to allow pattern-matching. So anything between 1.2 and 1.4 metres for extra trousers. Of course always double-check with your tailor as they'll have their own idea of what they need.

[Melcombe]

Commissioning a tweed suit is, to my mind, as much fun as you can have in daylight hours.

Formal suits or eveningwear seem to be constrained by the expectations of the work environment for sober navy or grey; social norms curtail self-expression in black or white tie : designing one's own eveningwear probably marks the wearer as a true individualist – and maybe not in a good way.

Wearing tweed however is always going to offer more choice in terms of style as well as cloth: more than half the battle therefore is navigating through the astonishing variety of designs, weights and weaves – and that's before you have even decided on the style of suit. I think that a tweed suit can, nevertheless, be an immensely practical prospect and therefore if you live in the sort of climate where it can be regularly worn, why not go for something that will be worn once a week rather than only on the grouse moor?

My latest tweed project was a suit that I can also wear in a business context and therefore I opted for a simple hacking style 2 button coat and single pleated trousers in 16oz (I spend a fair amount of time outdoors). To start off, I visited that rather anonymous cloth seller at the bottom end of Regent Street because they keep a large amount of cloth on the bolt, and the pattern and drape of tweed looks entirely different in volume to how it appears in the sample book. Having gone there with an idea about a Cheviot with a purple overcheck that I had seen in sample, it turned out to be just too overwhelming on a larger scale.

I therefore took myself around the corner to W Bill (at their old premises). In hindsight I was indulged to a far greater extent than I deserved - not having made any sort of prior appointment - and was left to my own devices to have a good rummage through their stock with the expert and intermittent assistance of Mr Hammett himself.

With that experience I was able to choose the perfect cloth and left with full details which my tailor then ordered on my behalf the following week. I now realise how supremely lucky I was to have been given access to their premises because an acquaintance has since tried to follow the same route at their new premises, and has been told politely but firmly that they are not open to the public. In view of the type of business that they run which concentrates on providing a supreme service as a wholesale supplier, that is perhaps entirely understandable.

Good luck with the project and keep us posted.

[culverwood]

I have a P&H Hartwist suit which I am very happy with though it is not one for hot weather.

Browsing the Hartwists now. Lovely cloth. Is your still offered?

http://www.harrisonsofedinburgh.com/collections.html

It was probably 32045 a dark green/brown with a red windowpane check but it is difficult to tell from the small pictures