Silk tweed?

[Cantabrigian]

A few weeks back, I saw a Brooks Brothers' sportscoat which appeared to be a mottled green tweed herringbone. The label indicated that it was pure silk.

Do any of the mills regularly make silk 'tweeds?' It looked great and, according to the wearer, was as comfortable as a jacket can be in warm weather.

Thanks,
Cantab

[manton]

There are lot of silks in tweedy patterns, like houndstooth and gun club checks. All the ones I have seen are woven and finished to look unmistakably like silk, however.

[oscarsfan]

This fabric (also mentioned here )




is about a 50 - 50 silk wool mix. I will use it for spring suits. Very tweedy looking.

[iammatt]

I have seen a couple of lightweight herringbones with about 5% silk in them just to give an interest to the texture. They look tweedy, but they do not really look like tweed if that makes sense.

[SouthPender]

It looked great and, according to the wearer, was as comfortable as a jacket can be in warm weather.Thanks, Cantab

Surprised to hear the wearer characterize it as comfortable in warm weather. I would have thought just the opposite--with a lightweight wool fresco (or linen for that matter) more comfortable on a hot summer day.

[DD MacDonald]

A couple of years ago I bought a woven silk jacket from an Orvis sale - I did not realize that it was silk until I hung it in my closet and inspected the labels. The weave is a sort of gunclub check in tan and green which is a very easy summer look. The only down side to the garment is that the cut is fairly boxy and pedestrian in manner.

In terms of the fabric, because of a very open/soft/loose weave, the jacket is extremely breatheable and has little or no sheen. I would seriously consider commissioning a garment in such a cloth. I should also note that the fabric is probably fragile in that it would probably snag and pull if caught by a thorn, errant fork or unscrupulous cat claw. However, I have yet to suffer such indignity in the garment.

DDM

[Concordia]

Last year I had a jacket made from a silk/linen/wool blend from a mill I've completely forgotten. 2.5B, 3 patch pockets, half-lined. It is obviously tweedy (not "silky"), obviously informal-- the patch pockets and the soft silhouette, one of Hitchcock's limper efforts, see to that-- obviously not sturdy enough for everyday wear, and obviously too warm for the average summer day around here. The half-lining does nothing to improve breatheability, while making it really hard to get on and off.

In spite of all these design foibles, I actually like the thing a lot. Nevertheless, I will have to wait for very cool summer evenings to wear it with white barathea trousers and bucks or something. Maybe the upcoming visit to Northern Michigan.

A specialized product.

[T4phage]

I'm holding a few lambswool-silk tweeds in my hand. Quite lightwight yet still retaining all the 'tweedy' goodness! .