I received in the mail today a 5 meter length of lightweight tweed that you see pictured to your left from Breanish, a small, traditional weaver of single-width tweeds run near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis by Ian Sutherland and his wife Diana. Ian and Diana are mostly in retirement now, but they consented to weave a tweed to the specifications of a friend of mine, who in turn drummed up enough interest among his friends and acquaintances to make it a worthwhile length. I went in for enough for a jacket, and I'm glad that I did. The ground is a combination of dark chocolate and deep burgundy, and the windowpane is cream. I'm not sure of the weight, but I'd guess that it's about 12 ounces, which is a perfect weight for tweed on the Texas Gulf coast. I'll have it made up this fall by Chris Despos, who is a Chicago- and Dallas-based tailor who has made one jacket and four pairs of trousers for me recently. That one jacket is from another length of Breanish tweed, this one a rust with a royal blue windowpane, and it turned out just beautifully. Chris is extremely talented. I'm thinking that it will be single-breasted with three patch pockets (two hip pockets and one chest pocket). Here's to hoping that it will be cool again some day soon!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Tweed!
I received in the mail today a 5 meter length of lightweight tweed that you see pictured to your left from Breanish, a small, traditional weaver of single-width tweeds run near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis by Ian Sutherland and his wife Diana. Ian and Diana are mostly in retirement now, but they consented to weave a tweed to the specifications of a friend of mine, who in turn drummed up enough interest among his friends and acquaintances to make it a worthwhile length. I went in for enough for a jacket, and I'm glad that I did. The ground is a combination of dark chocolate and deep burgundy, and the windowpane is cream. I'm not sure of the weight, but I'd guess that it's about 12 ounces, which is a perfect weight for tweed on the Texas Gulf coast. I'll have it made up this fall by Chris Despos, who is a Chicago- and Dallas-based tailor who has made one jacket and four pairs of trousers for me recently. That one jacket is from another length of Breanish tweed, this one a rust with a royal blue windowpane, and it turned out just beautifully. Chris is extremely talented. I'm thinking that it will be single-breasted with three patch pockets (two hip pockets and one chest pocket). Here's to hoping that it will be cool again some day soon!
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5 comments:
God, that's beautiful. Is there any left?
Out of curiosity, if you had a lot of special fabric you wanted to get informal (i.e. Hawaiian) shirts made from, where would you go?
Or better yet, since it's my clothing bugdet, where should I go?
I am pleased you support the Harris Tweed weavers in Lewis - Brenish is not near Stornoway, you can't get further away from the town in Lewis than Brenish. It's a good 45 miles away.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/pharmolo/NorthernTrip
adb, the two addresses that I have found for Breanish are :
Breanish, Uig, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9HB
and:
1A Melbost
by Stornoway
Isle of Lewis
HS2 0BD
Both of these appear to be very close to Stornoway.
Dear all,
My name is Iain Macleod, and I have recently taken over the running of Breanish Tweed. I am from the Isle of Lewis, and we have a long weaving tradition in our family - my father is one of the weavers for the company. Ian Sutherland is still helping us, and we still offer the same cloth, to the same high standard. Feel free to email me at info@breanishtweed.co.uk if you'd like some more information, or if we can be of any help. Best wishes. Iain Finlay Macled.
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