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Thanks for the critiques and compliments, everyone. Who knew the tweed would be so divisive? I think that tweed is best employed with some sense of its country origins, but that overly strict adherence to that country vibe gets costumey pretty easily, especially in a sub/urban context. I like to see people play with it a bit, even better if they pull it off... Here in the States, divorced from any direct link to the country nature of tweed, I can respect the well founded views of those who refuse to wear it in the city, but I don't feel compelled to adhere to that edict.
All that said, after changing when I got home yesterday, I looked at the components of the outfit lying on the bed and concluded that zbromer was more right than wrong about my combination of elements. The PS was too much, and I would ideally have chosen a blue shirt, as I agreed above. I typically wear this jacket with a solid navy or dark green tie which both work "better" but I still think the tie I wore was okay.
I disagree with the above critique... I personally think this works great, I like the color pattern and there is a hint of purple in the jacket that tie the whole thing together... with regards to cufflinks, I don't necessarily believe a look has to be "congruent" to work, I get what you are saying but I think that Sugar knows the "rules", and has deviated from them very effectively to an overall armonious result... all in all I like this a lot.... just my $ 0.02
And I think this idea that tweed is 'country' is not really so significant in the C21st.
I'm not so convinced. It takes a long time for the associations of certain types of clothes with certain roles to disappear from the collective unconscious. Tweed is certainly increasingly used in non-country contexts by a variety of designers and the public, so the country association is fading (to be replaced, at least in this country, by "oh that's what the new Doctor Who wears" it seems to me... ). But overall, I think the country association remains fairly tight. Of course, for the majority of the population the "old man" tweed association is also pretty tight, so one has to pick and choose which popular associations one cares about...
i think the country association only really holds true for england. i once (before i knew anything about clothes) thought of tweed as sort of an all-purpose sport coat fabric for academic/intellectual types.
Because I am still somewhat of a sartorial noob, marginally-equipped intellectually, and of questionable moral character (by contrast, my acumen with animal husbandry is the stuff of legends), I also feel that tweed is better served by those 80+ or quail hunters. Or the probably deadly combination of the two:
@ Acridsheep: I wear tweed jackets a lot this time of year, especially on "Casual Fridays" and the like and, while I'm an Old Fart of sorts (Mid Forties) and do enjoy a spot of shooting at weekends I'm encouraged to see a number of much younger Men and Women "Rocking the tweed" on the tube each morning. Paired with the right shirts, trousers and boots it can look outstandingly smart, paired with the wrong sort, outlandish and eccentric (which could be a good or bad thing depending on context I suppose).
In short Tweed, I like it, I think it's good.
Thanks for the critiques and compliments, everyone. Who knew the tweed would be so divisive? I think that tweed is best employed with some sense of its country origins, but that overly strict adherence to that country vibe gets costumey pretty easily, especially in a sub/urban context. I like to see people play with it a bit, even better if they pull it off... Here in the States, divorced from any direct link to the country nature of tweed, I can respect the well founded views of those who refuse to wear it in the city, but I don't feel compelled to adhere to that edict.
All that said, after changing when I got home yesterday, I looked at the components of the outfit lying on the bed and concluded that zbromer was more right than wrong about my combination of elements. The PS was too much, and I would ideally have chosen a blue shirt, as I agreed above. I typically wear this jacket with a solid navy or dark green tie which both work "better" but I still think the tie I wore was okay.
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