Guest post: Harris Tweed - Accessories with style by Tatiana Delany

I'm very grateful to Tatiana Daly for writing this post about one of my favourite cloths. Tatiana works within sustainability and ethical trading in the fashion industry and is a London-based MA graduate in the History and Culture of Fashion who specialised in the British textile industry, craftsmanship, manufacturing and Tweed! French speaker, could spend all day in a museum archive, lover of Iris Murdoch and the Hebrides. 

There is a quiet tweed revolution happening in the world of fashion and retail; a revolution which has seen Harris Tweed double its production between 2009 and 2012 leading to the highest levels of manufacture in fifteen years (Harris Tweed Authority).

Sample colours of Harris tweed 

A recent brilliant article on The Gentleman’s Gazette titled ‘Tweed guide – The curiously compelling story of Tweed’ will tell you everything you need to know and more about this British cloth, its origins, weaves, every variety of tweed you can imagine and even a mention of the now infamous bicyclists ‘tweed run’.

But who is buying all this tweed and how did it suddenly become so stylish once more? Over the past couple of years, men of all ages have started buying accessories and not just the odd umbrella, cufflinks or belt, but binging on bags, satchels, scarves, shoes and jewellery where there is something for everyone. The sporting jacket, tweed blazer and plus fours still have their loyal following, but it is this accessories market where tweed and more especially Harris Tweed have found a new and fashionable outlet. 

Nike Harris tweed 

Harris Tweed first appeared in the mainstream accessories market in the now infamous Harris Tweed Nike trainer of 2004, the tweed famously woven by the wonderful Donald John Mackay. Since then the accessories market has embraced this perhaps once unlikely partnership and Harris Tweed has been used by designers from Paul Smith, to high street brands like John Lewis and every independent in between. A particular favourite of mine at the moment is the Scottish brand Breagha found at www.breaghadesigns.com with an amazing collection of back packs and satchels. As ‘texture’ crops up again and again in current trends and forecasts, so combinations of the rough, tightly woven traditional Harris Tweed, smooth leather or other fabrics and textiles in an accessory fits this fashion perfectly. 

Breagha Harris tweed satchel

During the late nineteenth century, accessories for the discerning gentleman such as the top hat, gloves, the ubiquitous cane and pocket watch symbolised a certain type of severe elegance and modern masculinity, their rise in tandem with the increasing uniformity in male clothing. The luxury and ostentation of men’s dressing in the eighteenth century was replaced with a certain tasteful ascetism in the Victorian period defining the new age of the industrial, responsible, middle class man.

And just as in the nineteenth century, accessories are no longer merely status, class or economic symbols of power; they reflect a changing cultural phenomenon of the rise of a new modern (in this case twenty-first century) man. This man is comfortable and delights in style and fashion, tempted by a sparkling London menswear scene. The accessory offers a way to ease into the world of men’s style, especially those accessories which combine tradition and modern design; enter the Harris Tweed back pack. Accessories are taking centre stage once more. 

Greasy tweed before finishing