Trending Fabrics In Modern Menswear
For the sartorially-inclined male, fashion is a fickle master that consumes many hours of his life. For some, it’s about the pursuit of the timeless investment piece, for others it’s seeking the new and now.
Fabrics play a pivotal role in how we dress and are often a stronger influence on consumer trends than cut or colour. They can be revived in fresh forms from the dusty depths of the wardrobes of yesteryear, or completely original, novel inventions.
In this piece, we take a look at some of the more traditional materials that are set to influence our personal style in 2014…
1. Tweed
Just thinking of this heritage fabric evokes a whole host of rich connotations: the earthy, musty smell tainted with old tobacco and fresh rain, the hard-wearing woolen texture on the fingers, and images of mustachioed Edwardian gents with Holland & Holland rifles perched on their shoulders.
Quite fittingly, tweed originated from the land of all things hardy: Scotland. Developed in the 18th century as a practical and heavy cloth to tackle the harsh highland elements, tweed weaving spread across the water to Ireland, where its most famous tweed manufacturing region, County Donegal, produces the distinctive multi-tone fleck cloth known as Donegal Tweed.
What began as a workingman’s cloth soon spread to the aristocratic echelons, where it was recognized as the ideal fabric for outdoor pursuits at lavish hunting parties. It was durable, warm and naturally water repellent – the perfect fit.
It’s this association with the British elite that still lingers in the popular consciousness today. Having enjoyed its heyday from the 19th century, up until the 1950s, tweed fell out of favor after being associated with stuffy professors and an antiquated way of life. The fabric enjoyed a revival at the hands of the mods in the 1960s, before once again suffering a decline in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.
Once again, as we look to the past for design inspiration and long for a more elegant era of dressing, tweed is back in a big way. This season, the fabric is everywhere: jackets, trousers, bags, hats and even shoes are all sporting the tweed treatment, and the appeal is easy to see.
Tweeds offer a great way of introducing color into a normally drab menswear palette and also provide superb insulation, which is vital to survive the inclement British climate.
It owes these qualities to its production process: the cloth is woven as tightly as possible, often with a ’twill’ weave (when the strands are woven in a diagonal cross-weave pattern), increasing density.
The most illustrious of tweeds, Harris Tweed, originates from Scotland’s Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Widely considered to be one of the finest quality tweeds, this virgin wool cloth is still made by hand today.
Lookbook Inspiration
Key Pieces
- Asos Harris Tweed Peacoat
- Farah Vintage Tweed Trouser
- Signature Collaboration Harris Tweed Satchel
- Topman Harris Tweed Navy Blazer And Waistcoat
- Topman Harris Tweed Green Waistcoat
- J.crew Slim-fit Harris Tweed Blazer
- River Island Dark Green Holloway Road Tweed Check Coat
- Topman Burgundy And Grey Mix Tapered Skinny Trousers
- Richard James Harris Tweed Jacket
- Jigsaw Harris Tweed Overcoat
- Topman Tweed Wallet
- Ben Sherman Tweed Hat
2. Cashmere
Among the most coveted yarns in the world, cashmere is prized for its super-soft texture and exceptional heat retention.
Harvested from the cashmere goat, indigenous to central Asia, the yarn first rose to fame in the West in the late 18th Century, when cashmere shawls were imported from Kashmir, India (then spelled ‘Cashmere’ by the colonial British).
Cashmere was used more prominently in everyday garments such as jumpers and cardigans with the casualization of dress styles, which began in the 1920s.
The wool is a costly commodity, partly to do with the labor-intensive rigmarole of gathering and processing the yarn, and therefore considered a luxury in the modern market.
A cashmere goat’s natural fleece is made of up fine, soft under-down hairs mixed in with coarser hairs known as ‘guard hair’. To produce the super-soft cashmere yarn we’re all familiar with, the fine hairs must be extracted and processed.
This is achieved by combing the goat’s fleece by hand during the moulting season, when it can take up to two weeks to procure all the fine cashmere hairs. A single goat yields only 150 grams of cashmere yarn per year, which is just about enough to make a single scarf.
Despite the costly and time-consuming production techniques, cashmere has been steadily gaining popularity across all markets, and demand this season is greater than ever.
From the illustrious Paris and Milan design houses to high street stalwarts, cashmere has appeared in nearly every label’s winter 2013/14 collections and used widely for knitwear, coats and accessories.
Larger-scale production has brought prices down, with brands such as Uniqlo offering cashmere at more wallet-friendly prices, dispelling the popular belief that cashmere is exclusively for those with deep pockets. Of course, high-end designers continue to create garments at eye-watering prices from ‘pure cashmere’, which has been further treated to remove impurities and coarser hairs.
Lookbook Inspiration
Key Pieces
- Allsaints Elba Cashmere Cardigan
- Allsaints Elba Cashmere Crew Jumper
- Jaeger Luxury Cashmere Overcoat
- Uniqlo Men Cashmere Turtle Neck Sweater
- Uniqlo Men Cashmere V Neck Sweater Colour Block
- Uniqlo Men Cashmere Crew Neck Sweater
- Reiss Herald Crew Neck Cashmere Jumper Aubergine
- Reiss Harp Cashmere V-neck Jumper Duck Egg
- Burberry Brit Cashmere Zipped Hoodie
- J.crew Ribbed Cashmere Beanie Hat
- Exemplaire Zipped Cashmere Cardigan
- Jaeger Shawl Neck Cashmere Cardigan
3. Merino Wool
Second only to cashmere, merino wool is also prized for its refined texture. The softest type of sheep’s wool, it has the added benefit of being non-irritating when worn against the skin.
Its name is derived from the Merino sheep, which were first bred in Turkey and central Spain for their exceptionally high-grade fleeces.
Merino was such a highly prized commodity in the 17th century that anyone caught trying to export merino sheep from Spain was served with the death penalty – the Spanish were intent on having a monopoly on the coveted yarn, making it one of the most valuable materials in the industry.
Merino is no longer a life or death affair in the fashion stakes, but is still regarded as a luxury material and commands a premium.
The Antipodean nations of Australia and New Zealand are the world leaders of merino production today, with the breed first introduced by British settlers in the late 1700s. The 1800s saw the first boom of merino wool production in Australia – the large uninhabited open spaces of the uncharted continent were ideal grazing pastures for the hardy breed.
These days merino is widely used for athletic and performance wear, due to its ability to provide warmth without overheating the wearer. Merino is also moisture repellent and has antibacterial qualities due to the presence of lanolin in the yarn, along with a natural ability to draw moisture from the skin and absorb sweat.
Merino features prominently within current collections, coming in the form of jumpers, cardigans, polo tops and hosiery, which can be worn against the skin as the yarn doesn’t itch or irritate like standard sheep’s wool.
British knitwear specialist John Smedley produces some of the finest pure-merino garments, which have a clean-cut, classic appeal that will never date. Other key brands to consider include UNIQLO, AllSaints, Marks & Spencer’s Best of British range, Burberry and
Lookbook Inspiration
Key Pieces
- Allsaints Mode Merino Crew Jumper
- Allsaints Mode Merino Open Cardigan
- Allsaints Mode Merino Hoody
- He By Mango Polo Collar Wool Sweater
- Jigsaw Merino Wool Knit Bomber Cardigan
- Merino Cardigan
- Reiss Orion Woolly Merino Crew Neck Sweater Yellow
- John Smedley Belvoir Merino Wool Rollneck Sweater
- John Smedley Cotswold Long-sleeved Merino Wool Polo Shirt
- Reiss Walter Mercerised Merino Cardigan Grey
- John Smedley Marcus Crew Neck Merino Wool Sweater
- Polo Ralph Lauren Jumper In Merino Wool Crew Neck
Final Word
The importance of fabric is obvious to see when taking a moment to ponder the creative process of fashion design. Some designers base their entire collections around this element, and begin developing concepts by first examining materials to inspire an idea, or an entirely new notion.
In this piece, we’ve explored some of the more traditional materials that have been central to the fashion industry for hundreds of years. Tomorrow, in part two, we take a look at the lesser-known fabrics of the future, along with some fresh uses for age-old materials.