I like tweed. My Mam bought me a tweed skirt and jacket (matching but I don’t wear them together in fear of tweed overload )about 9 years ago and I love them.

Tweed is wool, a natural product, and is therefore durable, warm, easy to pack, smart, nice to wear, and I could go on. Although tweed can be a pricey product, if you divide the cost of that tweed skirt Mam bought me, with the amount of times I have worn it….you get a fine example of value for money. I have since bought myself another tweed skirt, so it must be good value. Buy cheap buy twice is a motto I like, I prefer a good quality item I can wear and wear again, but I must own up to having bought cheap and cheerful items too.

I do however have a bit of a problem with tweed. Not the product itself, I think it is fabulous, but the image it can create.

I will explain….I went to the Oxford Farming Conference in January this year, and there was so much tweed, but in this instance it didn’t look smart and warm it looked toffee nosed and as if it was straight from the shoot. I can understand that it is a functional product for certain sports, but by linking this so strongly with agriculture, we are in danger of creating an image of hoy polloy farmers.

I’m no expert on the history of tweed, but I highly doubt that the original inventors had that image in mind when they were busy weaving fibres to keep warm.

Fashion drives us so much. I don’t consider myself to be fashionable, my main aim is to be clean, presentable, and to wear clothes that fit. With the popularity of programmes like ‘Peaky Blinders’, however, tweed seems to be more popular than ever.

While we create that image on the one hand, on the other we are fighting to keep subsidies because farming isn’t a viable income by itself.

I feel the same when it comes to signs on trailers saying ‘support British farming’ or the likes, whilst the trailer is being towed by a brand new tractor or the latest model from Landrover brand.

The gap between rural and city lives, farming and non farming lives is growing all the time, and while we want to build relationships, maybe we should be thinking more about how we portray ourselves a bit more.

These are sweeping comments and assumptions, but as I am from a farming background I am concerned about the future of our industry and how we are perceived by others and want to be making the right choices, providing the right information, and sticking to my principles….and it is hard!

Tweed is environmentally friendly as it rarely needs a clean, so no washing liquids, fabric conditions etc required here. It is also easy care for the same reason!

Alot of tweed is made in the UK too, so for me, that is another reason to support the product.

So to return to the question…to tweed or not to tweed? I will continue to tweed and I will continue to get good value from it. I will endeavour to buy British tweed as well, supporting our own. Perhaps promoting the benefits of a natural and durable material, that we produce, would be a step in the right direction.

The original skirt and jacket from Mam…. I know it is Joules, so you think it is British but it is actually made in China…. like I said, it is hard to stick to principles 🙈🤔

Thank you for stopping by x