A Brighter suit of Tweed

The arrival upon the British cloth scene this year of the Dashing Tweeds collection was like a ray of mediterranean sunshine during this 'summer'.

Colourful, extravagantly patterned, light and supple, these are cloths for the extrovert and the style individualist and, with luck, they may help to make men's clothes a brighter spectacle for the future.

The result of cooperation between Guy Hills (see Stylep4 Dandy) and Kirsty MacDougall, photographer and weaver respectively, the collection is a heady mix, including some wool worsted and reflective yarn mixtures that glow in the dark. "They're good for cyclists," says Guy Hills. Could be a hit in the club scene too.

Sample selection of patterns from the Dashing Tweeds bunch.

It has to be said that most Savile Row tailors will find these tweeds a touch exuberant compared with their usual run-of-the-mill muted worsteds. But for the man determined to stand out in the dark as well as in the day, they are the best thing since the break-out by Harris Tweed some years back. The prospects for suits looks brighter.

Your tailor may order a bunch from www.dashingtweeds.co.uk

Woolmark back in the limelight

Celebrating two hundred years of sending fine wool fleece to England, the Australian Merino Wool organisation hosted a grand party at Australia House recently – itself a magnificent monument to the wealth of the wool trade which funded it. 

The event marks the coming together of the technical and marketing operations for Australia’s wool industry that were split in two some years back. As a result, the Woolmark logo, still the most recognisable brand in the world according to recent surveys, will be receiving major promotion once more.

The Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts may have been a myth but in real life the fleece of the humble sheep has provided the gold on which not only England’s but Australia’s wealth was founded. Merino fleece, shipped to England, was Australia's early export earner.

And now the AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) has grand plans for boosting wool in the market-place.  It recognises the popularity that cotton has achieved by diversifying and meeting new demands.  Well, watch out cotton, the merino sheep is about to show how versatile it too can be.

The wool bikini and top, above, is a far cry from the old woollen swimsuits that used to sag in the briny. This illustrates the lighter, finer and stable wool textiles now available.