let's look at vintage check tweed

[ForresterModern]

The 'classic' smell of older Harris tweed was due the use of Crotal as a dyestuff. It imparts a particular musky odour that is hard to beat. Unfortunately, it's hard, if not impossible, to find in modern tweed because the dyes are all artificial. I’m fortunate to have a jacket made from cloth dyed, spun and woven by the late Marion Campbell.

Aye, Peter, I had several meters of 1950's vintage nut brown herringbone Harris tweed material wrapped in plastic for several years, awaiting my finding the right tailor to build me a nice Argyll jacket and waistcoat set. Each time I opened the drawer it was stored in I think I was getting that musty sweet "horse-sweat" smell that I now must presume was from the older dyes. Since moving to Texas I've little use for the tweeds I already own so a few months ago I sold the Harris tweed fabric for what was probably a song. I also had some lovely 18oz Black Watch tartan from the 1960's and a MOD tartan weaver whose name I have forgotten and who is long gone from the business. I now remember that that fabric had a lighter but similar scent, probably picked up from the tweed as they were stored together in the same drawer for several years. That tartan too is now gone, traded away, but for similar reasons of being too heavy for my current needs.

I sure do miss that smell, though, each time I open that drawer now. It is barely there, probably only in my memory.

Speaking of memory --- from my training in biology and medicine I remember that olfactory nerves (chemical sensitive neurons) and tactile neurons (temperature, pain and pressure sensitive neurons) are the most primitive types in the nervous system, being found in many of even the smallest multicell organisms, as they needed to be able to move toward chemical scents/tastes of potential nutrient sources, and move away from noxious substances and dangerous physical insults, purely from a survivalistic evolutionarily beneficial set of responses. Some of these functions are even present in single cell organisms today. These olfactory and physical sensory neural centers are housed in some of the developmentally "oldest" most primitive parts of our mammalian brains, albeit being less strong in humans than some other higher level mammals like canines and porcines and the like. Although we humans rely more on sight and sound for our daily survival than most lower mammals, those primitive smell centers in particular can be heartily aroused by some very simple but potent smells as you all have described, sometimes to the point of causing strong primitive systemic responses like flushing and sweating, desire and hunger, nausea, fear and revulsion. Fascinating what one can remember from more than 30 years ago, while at the same time not being able to remember what one ate for breakfast.