A rough woolen cloth whose colors come from the hills and moors where it was born—dyed with lichen, peat, and heather before synthetic dyes were conceivable.
The name comes from a misreading of the Scots word tweel (twill), but its association with the River Tweed proved permanent. Tweed is a fulled wool fabric with heathered colors—muted browns, greens, grays—produced by blending dyed wools before spinning.
Queen Victoria’s adoption of Balmoral brought the court into Highland dress. The tweed suit became the uniform of the British landed gentry, its check patterns—Glen plaid, houndstooth, herringbone—tied to specific estates and families.
Coco Chanel transformed tweed in the 1950s, taking a fabric of rural masculinity and making it urban femininity. Her unlined tweed jacket, trimmed with braid and weighted with a gold chain, became the uniform of the professional woman.
