Green Tweed colours

[Randy McIntosh]

I'm mulling over the idea of purchasing a Tweed day jacket and waistcoat in green.

I have noticed that almost every website I visit has different greens listed.
If they are all real tweed I figure that they basically come from the same mills.
Just like most tartan wool come from the same basic 4 or 5 mills or so

Is there really a vast differences in the greens or just marketing words?

Forest, Highland, Dark, grounds keepers, lovat etc

How is one to know which colour to pick without having the swatches in had?

[Taskr]

A disadvantage to online shopping. Google "forest green" and click Images and there's the illustration of the challenge of making a choice on colour online. add to that is that your monitor and another don't show colours exactly the same. Some online shops might take a picture of a couple of choices side by side for you - but not a full range. It still helps to spend a bit of time comparing colours from online shop(s) or google searches to get a sense of the depth and tone. You will at least not be expecting a rich dark green (such as forest) if ordering lovat. And, its important to know the return policy.

Happy shopping.

[Tobus]

If they are all real tweed I figure that they basically come from the same mills.

Don't confuse Harris tweed with generic "tweed". The former does indeed come from a handful of sources and are licensed to carry the name, while the latter could mean just about anything (or come from anywhere).

With that said, however, there are a lot more mills that produce tweed than tartan. And given that the colour pallette is generally much narrower for tweeds (most seem to revolve around earth tones), it's no surprise that there are more subtle differences in the shades of greens and browns and whatnot. It's not like each mill only has one green dye that they use.

[Steve Ashton]

Tweed, by its name means that there is no one color. It is various colors spun and woven together to get a overall effect. So Green in one Tweed may be totally different that what is called green from another mill.

Many of the names given to the various shades may be generic or be trying to evoke a feeling from a region.
The name Lovat is one of those that seems to be everywhere without any standard. I heard from one weaver that they use Lovat to mean that they use two colors. Green and Blue. If you weave with just the Green you get Forest Green. If you weave with just Blue you get Royal Blue. Mix the yarns so that there is more green than blue you get Lovat Green. More blue than green and you get Lovat Blue. Four colors from the same two yarns.

I always suggest that you get actual swatches of the fabric you are looking at to see what the color looks like to you.

Harris does not denote a type of Tweed but is a brand name of a group of weavers who produce many different types of Tweed under one brand name.
The same is true of Donegal Tweed. It is a group similar to the Harris group but you can usually tell Donegal by the small smatterings of red, green, yellow and blue yarns mixed in.

Some Donegal Tweed.

[Todd Bradshaw]

A lot of the Harris Tweeds will also contain similar multi-colored bits. Nick has a good video on the Scotweb website showing the production of Harris Tweeds and in one step you can see them mixing small amounts of other colors into the base shades.

Kilt jackets are expensive enough that it will be worth the cost and short delay to order swatches of colors you see on the web and are interested in, so that you can check out the real deal. Marton Mills alone (one of several companies that weave fabric often used in kilt jackets) has a whole raft of green-ish tweed shades. Their web photos are pretty accurate, but there is no substitute for actually holding the real cloth in your hand.

[McKerrell]

There is one practice I encourage: ask for swatches!

[Jock Scot]

Yes swatches are the way to go, although the swatch of cloth that you have in your hand may differ a wee tad from what you actually get, due to different batches of wools reacting slightly differently to the dyes, but even so, there should be little discernible difference . But, without choosing the cloth from a bolt of cloth and having your jacket cut from that exact bolt, then swatches are the next best thing.

[javankrona]

Colors viewed on web pages are not always captured true. The photos shown are not tweed, but wool hose.



The first photo shows the color as viewed on the web browser, the second is in hand (sans hand). That said, in this case, the hose were quite nice nonetheless.

For a tweed jacket, I'd go with swatches.

[OC Richard]

Yes you need swatches.

If you can get to a Highland outfitter shop, either their brick-and-mortar shop or a booth at a Games, they will probably have a book (or several books) of tweed swatches to choose from.

The "classic" greens for Day Dress tweed jackets often seen in the old days and still today are Lovat Green and moss green. These aren't specific colours, really. You could see several Lovat Green tweed jackets which are all a bit different.

Here's some tweed jackets at a modern Games in Scotland



Here are Lochcarron's tweed offerings

http://www.lochcarron.co.uk/tweed-ja...g-kilt-fabric/

I'm fond of this jacket which I picked up on Ebay for around $100. The colour is very much like feldgrau, a dull green.



In Barathea, for Argyll jackets with silver buttons etc, you'll see Bottle Green and Tartan Green.

The army uses Archer Green which is extremely dark and often mistaken for black.

About Harris Tweed, here's their site

http://www.harristweedfabrics.com/our-tweeds.html

Back years ago I played in a pipe band that unfortunately decided to wear dark green Barathea Argyll jackets. They ordered them all from the same outfitter in Scotland. However since they were ordered over a period of 20 years or so, as the band grew, they ended up being in a bewildering variety of greens. In looking upon the band I though of the Irish song Forty Shades Of Green.

[Randy McIntosh]

Thanks everyone....I'll keep hunting