Tweed may not be the first fabric that comes to mind when you imagine where fashion is going today. To some, the fabric can come across as antiquated or stuffy, especially since menswear has generally shifted toward comfort and practicality in the 21st century.Indeed, tweed isn’t anything new. The tightly woven, usually woolen fabric finds its roots in 19th-century Scotland. Legend has it that the Scots originally referred to it as “tweel” (as in twill), but an English trader mistook it for “tweed” (as in Scotland’s Tweed River).The fabric is closely tied to the British Isles, where generations of farmers have harvested the wool from their sheep and spun it into threads to be used for warm, sturdy garments. As original producers like Lovat Mill in Hawick, Scotland, reach two hundred years in business, they continue to produce some of the world’s best tweeds.While tweed never really disappeared, the fabric is experiencing an international resurgence in the collections of the most influential designers, finding new expressions in various shapes and styles. But why now?The Return to SophisticationOver the last five or so years, the fashion pendulum has slowly swung back toward a sartorial mood. Whether it’s due to fast-fashion fatigue or a reaction against the hegemony of branded basics, the focus of men’s style is reorienting toward craft.Last year’s 2025 Met Gala theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” was a major signal, bringing unprecedented attention to traditional men’s tailoring with its all-star host committee. A$AP Rocky, one of the co-chairs and the CFDA’s 2025 Fashion Icon, even used the occasion to promote the opening of his AWGE Tailor Shop.The other 2025 CFDA honorees, Ralph Lauren (American Womenswear Designer) and Thom Browne (American Menswear Designer), also highlight this stylistic turn with their prep-adjacent sensibilities. Furthermore, the UK’s Fashion Awards highlighted designers in this realm of style, including Jonathan Anderson as Designer of the Year and Wales Bonner, the new Hermès menswear director, as British Menswear Designer of the Year.The Tweed TakeoverThis movement has been particularly friendly to tweed, which has had a major presence in many 2026 collections that have emerged thus far.One can’t begin to discuss the fabric without mentioning the impact of Coco Chanel’s influential adaptation of tweed for womenswear in the early 20th century. In keeping with house tradition, Matthieu Blazy showed no shortage of tweed variants in recent highly anticipated debuts. It was at the Chanel Métiers d’Art 2026 show that A$AP Rocky appeared in a frayed tweed Chanel jacket as its newest male ambassador.However, tweed made waves far beyond Chanel, appearing in Alessandro Michele’s Valentino, both of Glenn Martens’ collections at Diesel and Maison Margiela, and Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut.Having shown his SS26 line in October, Anderson’s Dior menswear collection contained several
Will 2026 Be the Year of Tweed?
