Tweed Jacket Color Advice

[Dave Kerr]

I made it to USA Kilts today, 27 Feb., and saw Moorland & Coffee.

It’s the bees’ knees. It wasn’t in either of the two MM swatch books but it rang a bell with Ian who returned with a meter of the tweed.

It is now my number choice for a MM tweed.

It is lighter than shown in my iPad photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/630273...n/photostream/


Dave

[Dave Kerr]

I thought of this thread seeing this photo of Cailean The Bagpiper on Facebook shopping for a kilt. Look how many sample books they have!

I'm pretty sure those are House of Edgar jackets. When I visited several Highland Wear/Kilt Hire shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2024 nearly every shop had HoE jackets, identifiable due to their colours Peat and Russet, and the fact that they don't seem to offer Argyll cuffs, except on their black Barathea jackets.

You can see the contrast between Lovat Green and Moss at centre, I think that's Lomond Blue behind. (No Peat visible, but I'll wager there's Peat on those pegs somewhere.)

Thank you, Richard. Glad to see the three HoE colors side by side.

I do like the Moss.


Dave

[OC Richard]

I made it to USA Kilts today, 27 Feb., and saw Moorland & Coffee.

It’s the bees’ knees. It wasn’t in either of the two MM swatch books but it rang a bell with Ian who returned with a meter of the tweed.

It is now my number choice for a MM tweed.

It is lighter than shown in my iPad photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/630273...n/photostream/


Dave

That's the MM tweed I have a jacket in. I love it, it looks great with every kilt.

Here with "Perth muted" from House of Edgar.

[Dave Kerr]

That's the MM tweed I have a jacket in. I love it, it looks great with every kilt.

Here with "Perth muted" from House of Edgar.

Thanks for suggesting it, Richard.

Photos are helpful, but with tweed, unlike tartan, I have now learned there is no substitute for seeing it in person. Sincere thanks.


Dave

[OC Richard]

Thanks for suggesting it, Richard.

Photos are helpful, but with tweed, unlike tartan, I have now learned there is no substitute for seeing it in person. Sincere thanks.

Dave

You're very welcome!

Tartans invariably look better in person, though there's not the extreme subtlety that tweeds have.

Have you seen the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?

The colour of Sean Connery's tweed suit varies tremendously with the lighting. In the way Hollywood does they bought a bolt of cloth (Harris tweed) and made probably around 20 suits (for Sean Connery himself, stunt doubles, and stand-ins) so we're always seeing the same cloth. But it varies from slate grey to walnut brown and everything in between.

An even more remarkable tweed colour thing can be seen in Downton Abbey. There's a scene in the mansion's lobby where Lord Crawley is in his shooting tweed outfit, and in one shot he walks across the room and before your eyes his suit changes from brown to grey.

[PiperPadre]

I made it to USA Kilts today, 27 Feb., and saw Moorland & Coffee.

It’s the bees’ knees. It wasn’t in either of the two MM swatch books but it rang a bell with Ian who returned with a meter of the tweed.

It is now my number choice for a MM tweed.

It is lighter than shown in my iPad photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/630273...n/photostream/


Dave

That's going to look great!

I was surprised that USAKilts had more tweeds on offer during your visit than available on their website. I spoke with Ian a couple of years ago (quite a delightful guy) and he said there jacket maker in Scotland can't see why anyone would want a kilt jacket in anything but 3 basic colors. I appreciate the options mentioned in this thread - especially Plover and this Moorland Coffee.

I've some swatches here and Plover is quite adaptable, different tartans making certain threads in the tweed stand out. It's kind of fascinating how chameleon-like Plover is, looking more blue or green depending on the tartan it's matched to. My jacket in loden fen is to close to Plover, with similar qualities. So, if I were to get another jacket, it would be in Jacksnipe from Marton Mills: https://martonmills.com/product/jacksnipe/

Have fun putting this together.

[OC Richard]

That's going to look great!
...Ian a said their jacket maker in Scotland can't see why anyone would want a kilt jacket in anything but 3 basic colors.

Perhaps unsurprisingly that's something I've traced the history of, using the limited sources I have.

Our first large-scale overview of Highland tweed jacket colours is The Highlanders of Scotland (late 1860s).

By far the most popular choice is mid to light grey (eleven) followed by four charcoal grey and two brown. Bringing up the rear is one each of black, mid-blue, and navy blue. Note that no green tweeds appear.

In my old catalogues the earliest mention of tweed colours is in Andersons (1936) where it states that "blues, Lovats, and browns are largely used."

Paisleys 1939 doesn't mention colours but the illustrations show Lovat blue, mid/light blue, and Moss.

Forsyths (1950s) says "Shades are usually chosen from the Fawns, Lovats, blues, and browns to tone with the tartan."

Tartan Gift Shop Edinburgh c1960 only offers Lovat blue, Lovat green, and fawn. These are also the hose colours most often seen offered around that time.

Into the 1970s through the 2000's several firms only offer Lovat blue and Lovat green. In the 2000's a third choice, charcoal grey, is becoming popular.

I can't find it now, but I had a old photo taken at a Highland Games of around 20 kilted gents and ALL of them are wearing the two Lovats.

Here's a couple tweed gents from the 1936 Paisley catalogue. Note the hose "to tone with" the tweed (brown jacket and Fawn hose, often seen).

It's kind of fascinating how chameleon-like Plover is, looking more blue or green depending on the tartan it's matched to.

That's what I found with my four kilts, that Plover was great with everything. It has flecks of brown, green, and blue and sort of takes on whatever role it needs to.

My jacket in Loden Fen is too close to Plover, with similar qualities. So, if I were to get another jacket, it would be in Jacksnipe from Marton Mills: https://martonmills.com/product/jacksnipe/

Jacksnipe looks beautiful. I'm sure it's even better in person.

[PiperPadre]

Perhaps unsurprisingly that's something I've traced the history of, using the limited sources I have.

Our first large-scale overview of Highland tweed jacket colours is The Highlanders of Scotland (late 1860s).

By far the most popular choice is mid to light grey (eleven) followed by four charcoal grey and two brown. Bringing up the rear is one each of black, mid-blue, and navy blue. Note that no green tweeds appear.

In my old catalogues the earliest mention of tweed colours is in Andersons (1936) where it states that "blues, Lovats, and browns are largely used."

Paisleys 1939 doesn't mention colours but the illustrations show Lovat blue, mid/light blue, and Moss.

Forsyths (1950s) says "Shades are usually chosen from the Fawns, Lovats, blues, and browns to tone with the tartan."

Tartan Gift Shop Edinburgh c1960 only offers Lovat blue, Lovat green, and fawn. These are also the hose colours most often seen offered around that time.

Into the 1970s through the 2000's several firms only offer Lovat blue and Lovat green. In the 2000's a third choice, charcoal grey, is becoming popular.

I can't find it now, but I had a old photo taken at a Highland Games of around 20 kilted gents and ALL of them are wearing the two Lovats.

Here's a couple tweed gents from the 1936 Paisley catalogue. Note the hose "to tone with" the tweed (brown jacket and Fawn hose, often seen).





That's what I found with my four kilts, that Plover was great with everything. It has flecks of brown, green, and blue and sort of takes on whatever role it needs to.



Jacksnipe looks beautiful. I'm sure it's even better in person.

That's interesting. And now, despite the abundance of options, one still sees the usual couple of suspects at Highland Games amongst the few that wear tweed over here.

Jacksnipe is lighter than the MM website depicts.

[OC Richard]

Jacksnipe is lighter than the MM website depicts.

That corresponds with what I've seen: when I got a handful of MM tweed samples in hand I discovered that none matched the images on the MM site. Interestingly they were off in a number of different ways (some looked too green, some looked too rust, some looked too grey) so it wasn't a monitor thing.

Ditto the images on the St Kilda site (they had most of the MM tweeds).

[Tomo]

Checking samples is the way to go. Lovat Mill also does a great range of tweeds https://lovatmill.com/bunches/

The Kirkton and Teviot ranges are worth a look.