In our voluminous Guide to Cloth series, we’ve already done an article on tweed. But that was about the history, the style and a little about the types. There was no mention of bunches.

Today’s article takes on that introduction, fleshes out the categories and expands into recommendations. In particular, it explains what makes one tweed different from another. While Harris and Shetland tweeds might be quite different, the Harris bunches from the various mills often are not.

A further compliment to this series might be a breakdown of the various tweed jackets I’ve had made over the years, with my reflections and advice. Let me know if you that would be welcome.

Shooting tweeds

Historically, tweeds were mostly used for suits, including those specifically intended for rural sports such as hunting. This type of tweed is quite different to the soft tweed jacket you’d think of today – it’s denser, sharper, tougher. This a separate category of tweed, and the main bunches are:

Porter & Harding: Hartwist
Probably the most popular shooting tweed around Savile Row today. Like other shooting tweeds, it’s a woollen but uses a twisted yarn, and is densely set to achieve that toughness. This is what makes a tweed suit something that is functional, that in particular works for trousers.

HFW: Alsport
This was the default bunch for many years, but the bunch changed slightly in 2007 and was reissued by Huddersfield Fine Worsteds. The new bunch is no longer woven in-house and has a design range more similar to other bunches.

Porter & Harding: Thornproof
Like Solaro, Thornproof is a trademark and refers to this particular bunch, but the name is so evocative that it is sometimes used as an almost generic name for this type of tweed. Thornproof has some lighter weights than Hartwist and has fewer checks – it’s a muddier, slightly more urban range with some Donegal-like options. The variation between these bunches is mostly one of weight and patterns.

Lovat Mill: The Ettrick
One of the reasons the bunches don’t vary much is that today the vast majority are woven by the same couple of mills, of which Lovat is one. Lovat bunches are less available and often less supported (meaning the cloth is not being held waiting for someone to order a cut length – these are all things that make the merchants valuable). But Ettrick is a little different, being particularly tough and having a nano coating to help with waterproofing. Tevist and Kirkton are more regular bunches.

Glenlyon
An old Scottish mill that was bought up and kept going to make its original patterns, Glenlyon has a slightly different handwriting from the others in this list – different colours, some of them lovely, some of them less so. They also have I think the heaviest tweed on the market (775g).

Johnstons of Elgin also have some shooting tweed by the cut length, but it’s sometimes avoided by tailors as it’s commonly seen in ready-to-wear. Dugdale’s also has a bunch called White Rose Sporting Tweed, while Holland & Sherry offers the type as Moorland Tweed. Campbells of Beauly is the best place in Scotland for shooting tweeds and often has old lengths.

Harris Tweeds

Harris Tweed is protected in terms of where it can be produced and how. But nonetheless, the tweed itself has changed over time with the local sheep – it is nearly all Cheviot today, rather than the original Scots Blackface of the crofters. This makes the tweed softer, quite apart from other changes in mechanisation (see artisanal section below).

But, in general Harris Tweed is still hairier – tweedier – than other tweeds you can buy by the cut length, particularly the other obvious jacketing options. Harris Tweed is the first place I would always look for a real tweed jacket. Comparing them to shooting tweeds is rather like comparing woollen to worsted flannel: the latter is very functional but lacks the texture and character of the former.

W Bill
Porter & Harding and W Bill were the two traditional tweed houses but are now both owned by Harrisons/LBD – another sign of how the world has amalgamated and narrowed. Still, Bill does still offer something slightly different, with patterns that reference the archive and so are more traditional, plus a lighter finish on the material generally, making them more three dimensional. It’s closer to a traditional tweed than most.

Holland & Sherry
Apart from W Bill and the small artisans we’ll get to later, most Harris tweeds are pretty much the same, and indeed woven in the same places. Holland & Sherry is one of those, but I list it first because it’s often the most accessible for people, and historically has had a broad colour range. Also, it should be said that while traditionalists dislike the softness and more pressed finish of these tweeds, they are more commercial for a reason, being easier for most people in most places to wear.

Porter & Harding, Huddersfield Fine Worsted etc
There are a few other Harris Tweed bunches out there and the quality is the same, but they don’t usually offer anything apart from an occasional colour. In terms of quality by the way, they will often be described as ‘handwoven’. This means a pedalled loom is used to weave it, but arguably the bigger difference is the loom itself and the size of the wooden shuttle. The artisanal names mentioned lower down are different.

Shetland and other soft tweeds

Shetland wool is softer than cheviot and so shetland tweeds and their like tend to make softer and lighter jackets – better for urban use and frankly the majority of modern use. A lover of tweed might call them flat, lacking character, but make up your own mind.

W Bill: Shetland Tweed
The default again, although the difference compared to other bunches is less with the Harris, in terms of patterns and feel.

Holland & Sherry: Sherry Tweed
Uses a New Zealand lambswool rather than shetland, but is similar, just a touch smoother in feel. As with Harris tweed, Holland & Sherry is also often the most accessible around the world for this type of jacking and has a wide range. I’ve used it for jackets in the past and they’ve served me well.

Fox Brothers: Fox Tweed
Fox Tweed uses a crossbreed British wool that feels quite similar to shetland, but the quality is s heavier and denser than others, coming in at 17/18 ounces. Where Fox Tweed really shines though, is in its colours and patterns. Personally I think it’s the most modern and tasteful selection out there, with a mix of original designs, standards, and twists on them (a particular purply brown comes up a lot). The bunch also stands out given how narrow the tweed market has become in recent years.

Abraham Moon
Moon are unusual in producing some of their own tweeds in Yorkshire, where most of these come from the same mills. I tend to prefer other bunches, such as those above, but Moon is great when it comes to value for money.

Dugdale/Marling & Evans: Undyed wool
The popular undyed range from Marling & Evans is now distributed by Dugdale, in a temporary bunch called ‘Undyed British wool jacketing and suiting’. Dugdale also offers a shetland-like tweed under the White Rose Caldonaire label.

Donegal Tweeds

Donegal Tweed is characterised by flecks of different colours in the cloth, something we’ve seen being made in Donegal (pictured below). However it is not protected like Harris or so clearly defined as Shetland, and so similar designs are seen from various different mills.

Molloy & Sons
A great mill that we visited for PS here, but hasn’t always sold cloth by the metre. It now offers this through its website – expect a similar handfeel to the shetland and softer tweeds mentioned above.

Magee
A bigger operation than Molloy and using more modern looms, but often good value for money. The tweeds are often smoother than Molloy or more traditional weavers, which goes to the points above regarding character and choice.

Other mills will offer Donegal selections occasionally, usually produced by one of these two or by Nobles, which doesn’t itself sell by the metre.

Artisanal tweeds

Old Harris Tweed wasn’t just different because of the wool it used. The old Hattersley looms were also slower, with a big wooden shuttle that worked more space between the yarn and gave it an airy, three-dimensional feel. I worked with Breanish years ago on something related and have seen bolts of the old Harris Tweed at various tailors. They feel like something very different.

There are very few of these weavers left, and those there are don’t usually offer cut lengths (it’s too expensive to keep stock). Ian Sutherland, who used to run Breanish, supplied Anderson & Sheppard for years and his cloth became part of what A&S was known for. Donald John Mackay of Luskentyre Harris Tweed still weaves but nothing is available by the cut length.

One bright spot is Sam Goates of Woven in the Bone, and she occasionally has ends available to buy. And there’s Ardalanish on Mull, who do some cut lengths. They have more modern looms but focus on undyed wools from a range of sheep, or natural dyes such as wode.

If you get a chance to see old Harris Tweed somewhere, it’s worth a look as a reminder of where the material came from – why those cloths could easily make a tough shooting suit, where are a modern Harris could not.

Other tweeds, including Italian versions

There are worsted tweeds such as Glorious Twelfth and Alsport Light, but to me they’re even further away from what tweed should be – basically suitings with a tweed look.

And there are always Italian versions of everything. Some of these are soft wools or even cashmeres with tweedy colours or Donegal flecks (like my Rubinacci jacket, above). But others are more interesting – in Prato they make some lightweight cloths that are deliberately as airy as tweeds, but in softer wools. Perhaps it’s something different to tweed, but it has a definite appeal.

One bunch that I’d certainly recommend in that area is Sopra Visso from Loro Piana, which like all Loro Piana bunches has a very high taste level. It uses local Italian sheep and takes inspiration from tweed designs. Currently there’s only a suiting range but they have also done jacketings.