An Irish tradition that has stood the test of time

It all begins in the 18th century, in the Scottish Highlands .

It is a mountainous region where winters are particularly cold and wet, so farmers in the region need effective clothing to cope with them while working outdoors.

With no Canada Goose nearby, they developed a 100% homemade recipe.

They collect wool from local farmers. Thick, rustic wool: that of the “blackmouth” sheep, with fibers so rough that they are used to make rugs today. The idea that they wore it to work in the fields therefore makes me think that the term “badass” also appeared in the 18th century. Theory to be verified.

Interesting subtlety: they card this wool but do not comb it. That is to say, they just align the fibers to remove impurities. Nothing more before spinning.

This way, the wool remains as raw as possible and retains a maximum of natural fats, making the fabric more insulating and water-repellent.

They make a thick, tightly woven fabric from it, on their own looms, on their farms. After spinning the wool by hand, they follow the weaving pattern of the serge weave, with the famous diagonals that you find on your denims for example.

And bam! It makes tweed. A woolen armor that farmers can mistreat while being protected from the northern gusts . Its water repellency also suited fishermen. Its colors, discreet in nature because inspired by Scottish and Irish landscapes, camouflage hunters.

What's impressive is that this reputation for being a tough, durable and practical fabric will take it far beyond the Scottish countryside.

It first seduced the wealthy English classes. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was not a financial joy for Scottish owners. So they rented or sold their houses to English aristocrats for their outdoor activities. This is how the English would have discovered tweed, which would not leave their shoulders anytime soon.

The weavers of the Hebrides Islands in Scotland and County Donegal in Ireland, where this textile tradition was transmitted from the beginning, made tweed their trademark. They began to export it thanks to the success of their work.

Incidentally, it is in this context that the name tweed was given following a confusion. There are several versions of the story and here is my favorite: in 1826, a London cloth merchant received an invoice from Watson & Sons, his Scottish supplier. Reading “tweel” which means “twill” in Scots, he said that Watson wanted to write “tweed” as a brand name, referring to the river of the same name in his region. It is said that the merchant sold the fabrics under this name and that it remained that way.

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria, further cemented the popularity of tweed in 1848. He purchased Balmoral Castle and dedicated a tweed pattern to the estate, so as not to make enemies by using a tartan already used by a clan.

The trend was launched: bourgeois families who bought an estate in the countryside designed their own tweed, which would be worn in particular by their household staff.

It's amazing how a fabric with humble origins, created for work in rural areas, can become a symbol of elegance on an international level.

The wildfire reached the middle classes with industrialization, which made tweed more accessible. Tweed was then worn for hiking, walking or cycling.

And that's just the beginning, because the practicality and charm of tweed will make it a style icon: Coco Chanel has a crush on the jackets of her lover, the Duke of Westminster, who went hunting with him in the Scottish Highlands (the circle is complete). She was inspired by them to create her famous tweed jacket in 1920.

Thomas Burberry, a British clothier, also used tweed very early in his collections for the elegance and outdoor imagery that this material conveys.

From fashion shows to celebrities, it's only a step: Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, Jackie Kennedy, and Johnny Cash will all wear this aura of tweed. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones is the most telling case in my eyes.

His tweed jackets give him the presence of a professor while expressing his aura of an explorer. Just to make it clear that even though he writes diagrams on a board, that doesn't stop him from being ready to roll on the ground at any moment to dodge the shots of nasty Nazis (or communists, take your pick).

It’s all this historical character that we love in tweed and that we wanted to find in our coat.

First of all, we wanted it to hold up as well as those decades-old coats that you can still come across second-hand. This starts with the quality of its assembly, but it starts with the thickness and density of the weave. A dense tweed of 465 to 485 grams per m2, with this reassuring robustness when worn.

A bit of a geek story: the thickness of the fibers, which are 29.5 microns in diameter, also has something to do with it. It contributes to that dry and nervous hand typical of tweed.

So, let's be honest, it doesn't have the softness of a cashmere coat and that's a good thing. It wouldn't be a real tweed otherwise. Unlike a sweater, the wool of a coat doesn't have to be soft at all costs since you won't be wearing it shirtless. Well, it depends on your evening, so we still fully lined it in viscose just in case.

And rest assured, no “blackmouth” wool for carpets here. Depending on the arrival, it is wool from Australia, New Zealand or Norway. It is also treated with more modern finishes, which make it supple, for comfort and for a beautiful drape on you.

The other important point was that it protects you from the cold and the rain. The least you could do for a material that covered workers at sea and in the mountains. And without suffocating you in transport, like some coats with high percentages of synthetics.

So, no compromise on natural materials here: it's 100% wool, naturally thermoregulating thanks to the fibers that trap or release hot air depending on the ambient temperature. You won't go to the Bahamas with it either, but you'll just have to open it on the bus so you don't cook inside. Wool is also naturally water-repellent. With the tight and thick weave, you can handle a passing rain without any problem. Let it dry on a shoulder hanger and everything will be fine.

It's not just the wool of the tweed that warms our hearts. There are also its colours, historically taken from the Scottish and Irish regions. Here, it's the Irish landscapes: those of County Donegal in Ireland. Our spinner is one of the few to still work on these original lands of Donegal tweed. His company was founded under the name Gaeltarra in 1970 in Kilcar and then renamed itself Donegal Yarns in 2008. We must admit that this has the merit of being clearer.

Donegal Yarns has developed this very beautiful dark green, rather sober and therefore easy to wear. Which does not mean that it has to be boring! Just look at these stripes arranged in squares which are a change from the usual brown chevrons and houndstooth:

You've obviously noticed the little colorful speckles. We had a lot of fun developing it just for you and that's a whole other story.

A fabric was all the rage in Ireland in the 18th century. Guess which one? Scottish artisans brought it over when they migrated to the island, even though the two countries shared a lot in economic and cultural terms.

As in Scotland, Irish farmers weave their tweed on looms on their farms in County Donegal.

But they do it with a particularity: these small colored dots, characteristic of Donegal wool which quickly becomes famous for that.

Instant poetry: a legend says that originally, they were bits of flower petals of several colors. Women would have added them to wool to bring luck to their sailor husbands when they went to sea.

Myth or reality? We admit that we like to believe it, but what is certain is that these colored dots are made of wool these days. And that most of the time, Donegal wool is no longer made in Donegal.

You can find them everywhere and they are very beautiful. We are delighted that it stimulates the creativity of other weavers in the world. But it is increasingly rare to come across an authentic Donegal tweed, with the small imperfections that make the richness of its texture, the balance between rusticity and elegance that we love so much. Real Donegal, in other words!

So we are very happy to have found this again by developing our fabric with the Molloy family, who have been weaving their wool for six generations in the same workshop in Donegal. Since the 19th century, each generation has been born and raised right next door. It's hard to do more local.

Pathé British reported on them in 1957:

If you want to see with your own eyes how exciting their work is, we went to meet them on site two years ago to shoot a video. It was on the occasion of the release of our first coat made with them:

And to go further in this exploration of know-how, you will also find other very interesting reports. The YouTube search bar is your friend.

So how do they preserve the original character of Donegal in 2023?

They are already using old machines. Weaving looms that are more than 50 years old.

Then they take their time. A lot of time, because they run the machines 4 times slower. And it's not to play the craft and slow fashion game. There's a real reason.

In fact, the small colored dots are fibers that were not stretched during spinning. These are called neps. And if the machine weaves too quickly, these neps will not have time to come out. Which would be a shame, because that is the whole point of Donegal. Running the machines slowly allows the richness of the neps to express themselves. Some fibers will come out a lot, others hardly at all, and that is where the perfect imperfection of true Donegal tweed comes from.

But with these neps, you don't want to overdo it. Again, it's all about balance. These colorful dots have to set you apart without making you look like a Christmas tree. To achieve this, the Molloy family employees take the time to check each fabric as it comes out of the machine. They make sure there's just the right amount of neps, adjusting by hand with a needle.

This time, we ourselves contributed to the quest for this balance between originality and subtlety. It was the teamwork of Julien, Charlotte, Landry and Sarah who made up our product team at the time, as well as Kieran Molloy, who manages the company with his father Shaun. All of this, starting from a discovery by Jordan, our creative manager. A little design adventure that I want to share with you.

One day, Jordan came across this Molloy & Sons design while scouring the internet:

Julien and he say that this fabric would be charmed in a darker green. It would thus be more unique and more sober, therefore easy to wear with most of the colors of your wardrobes. And with a donegal speckle, it would be the must!

The team asks Kieran Molloy if it's possible. And it is, because Donegal Yarns has a yarn that matches: Termon 4715. If you ever want to make a blanket in Donegal, you have the reference now.

So we have a first sample woven. When we receive it, we say to ourselves that we would like neps in more discreet and more natural colors. Here, the red and sky blue are very bright.

So we are considering other options, including the Mourne 5517 yarn. Not the same green, but less bright neps.

We ask to receive a reel to really see what it really looks like. Since we're not fans, it won't go any further.

A few emails later, Kieran proposes a solution to the product team: ask Donegal Yarns to spin the same green as Termon 4715, but with different neps colours. It turns out that Donegal Yarns doesn't have enough of this yarn in stock for our coats anyway, so he'll have to spin it no matter what, so he might as well ask for a custom-made one!

All that remains is to choose the colours of neps to replace. To do this, Kieran sends us the colours available at Donegal Yarns. He tells us that the initial colours of Termon 4517 are:

• red 2249,
• sky blue 1562,
• khaki green 1645,
• brown 2684.

Here they are in the photos of the colors available. Since I'm a nice person (and since it's almost Christmas, just so you know), I've circled them so you can easily spot them:

So, what we did:

• red 2249 was replaced by medium gray 2763,
• we also switched the sky blue 1562 to the navy blue 1441,
• we kept the khaki green 1645,
• as well as brown 2684.

And here is this final selection:

Okay, let's admit it: it's a detail and we've racked our brains a lot. But it's the sum of the details that makes us love a coat enough to wear it all our lives without getting tired of it. Whether these details concern the material or the shape of the piece. Oh, come on! A forceful transition.

“That’s a gentleman’s coat!”

That's what we said to each other while laughing with David, a fellow copywriter, when he tried on the coat at the office.

More explicit (and more censored) quote from Benoît when I put it in turn:

“With this on you, you go out on a date, you have every chance of going up for tea.”

These are moments of joke of course but they convey the same core of truth: you immediately see something else in an imposing coat like this one. Its shape has a majestic side and it doesn't come from nowhere. In fact, it comes from Scotland.

Rewind: Mid-19th century, Scottish Highlands, Balmacaan Estate near Inverness.

It's still cold and wet in the area. A real pleasure to go out.

A wealthy entrepreneur thought to himself: “That’s not bad, this thing, tweed (a material that was quite fashionable in the region at the time, you may have heard of it). What if I asked my tailor to make an overcoat out of it, so I don’t come home frozen and wet like a Guinness sorbet?”

This is a reconstruction quote based on several google searches about the creation of the iconic Balmacaan coat. The circumstances are discussed, but not the location.

And one thing is for sure: as with other tweed garments worn by aristocrats, the majesty of the Balmacaan seduces far beyond the Scottish countryside. So much so that in 1929, the Prince of Wales (future King of the United Kingdom, after all) wore it at the Epsom Derby, an equestrian competition.

He thus launched the popularity of this coat, later helped by other male figures.

This popularity even reached American campuses in the mid-1930s. Then, a few decades later, catwalk fashion, elegant men in the cinema. Definitely.

Needless to say, to show off your best side no matter what the current Instagram trend is, we were pretty convinced by his 200-year CV. And if we're going to make a tweed coat that's this authentic, it might as well be a Balmacaan. So we took inspiration from his lines, while trying to stay contemporary in their interpretation.

#1: a loose fit, slightly oversized and a generous length that covers the knees.

Scottish lords could thus pile up their clothes underneath and brave the cold effectively.

As for you, you can have fun in terms of layering.

This volume also imposes the silhouette and highlights the drape of the tweed. With such a presence, there is no risk of asking for your ID at the entrance to a bar. Even after a clean shave.

Which doesn't mean you'll be drowning in it. Quite the opposite, since you can cinch it with its belt which will be at your disposal, hanging from its belt loops.

And if you really prefer to wear your coats fitted, you can take it one size down. I tried it and it works on me. You can also have it shortened to your liking by an alterationist.

#2: a raglan armhole, which starts from the collar rather than the shoulder.

Practical for putting it on in the blink of an eye in the morning without playing the contortionist, especially when a jacket constrains your shoulders. It was invented for this purpose by Lord Raglan, who lost his arm in 1815 during the Battle of Waterloo. A few years later, the presumed inventors of the Balmacaan also took it up for another reason: its two yokes let less rain in than a regular shoulder seam. But hey, let's not lie to ourselves, we especially like this armhole for its style.

#3: a Prussian collar, or turn-down collar. It was raised when the mountain wind attacked, you can do the same when you don't have a scarf.

#4: a front closure, with hidden buttons for a clean look. And then it would be a question of being a minimum modest anyway, with your beautiful horn buttons, there!

#5: two large flap pockets, to slip your hands into when it’s freezing, the things you want to keep close at hand, or both.

#5: A button placket at the bottom of the sleeve, inspired by one of Jordan's favorite coats in his wardrobe. We found it beautiful and well-proportioned.

There you go, I hope you enjoyed this presentation…

…because it’s obviously not finished! We weren’t going to stop there on the finishing touches, that would be to misunderstand our mania for adding practical pockets everywhere:

• an interior zipped pocket with a grosgrain pull tab,
• a large inside pocket for your hat or gloves, which can dry quickly in this airy mesh. A finish that our co-founder Benoît spotted on a US army fleece.

All these finishes have been chosen and assembled to last, alongside the tweed that is ready to fight: solid horn for the buttons, good quality zips, linings made by an Italian company... all assembled by the company Lener Cordier, which develops its patterns in France then carries out assembly in its workshop in western Ukraine (the latter has also been audited and certified Business Social Compliance Initiative - BSCI - on a set of criteria including employee protection, fair pay, working hours, job stability and respect for the environment).

If one day, a detail should let you down, you can have it repaired and even contact us so that we can help you.

The goal of a Balmacaan coat this authentic, made from Donegal tweed spun and woven right next to its homelands, is that its life by your side is as long as its history.

It is a garment known for its tenacity. So if you pass it on to your children or those of your friends one day, the mission of our colleagues who worked on it will be accomplished. If you do so by telling its story, mine will be too.

But hey, we're in no rush, are we? So until then, I hope you enjoy wearing this coat as much as we enjoyed trying it on at the office.

Our capsule collection with exceptional materials, consisting of this coat, a cardigan and an overshirt, is available now on our e-shop and in store.

We will also be live on Instagram this Thursday, November 16 at 6 p.m. with David and Benoît, to show them to you live and answer all your questions!