The Tweed Jacket by Tord Krogtoft

by Tord Krogtoft

1 december 2025Tord Krogtoft4 min read

As a dedicated clothes horse I am very much into fabrics. I like denim. I enjoy the soft feeling of cashmere in a scarf or sweater. I wear an Oxford cloth shirt most days. I love my silk ties and appreciate corduroy for both jackets and pants. But my absolute favorite cloth, or weave to be more precise, is tweed – rugged, warm, drapes nicely and gets better with age, tweed is my number one for coats, but more so for jackets. Tweed season is my favorite time of year. Finally, we can dress, and layer, again!

Tweed, came to England, from Scotland, via kings and gentry and in the early nineteenth century was championed early on by various members of the so-called Aesthetic Movement. Writers like Oscar Wilde and Evelyn Waugh wore tweed and looked quite aesthetic themselves.

When the student Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the streets of Sarajevo, he might have been wearing tweed, and after the great war the tweed jacket and baggy flannels became the weekend uniform. As G. Bruce Boyer wrote in his book, Elegance: A Guide to Quality in Menswear: “Some men eventually took to wearing the outfit to the office on Fridays, for an early getaway.” Tweed for everyone (and the concept of casual Friday) was established. Or as Boyer said it; around 1914 tweed became “the accepted democratic costume and great social leveler of the age”.

My personal interest in tweed, and especially the grey, herringbone tweed jacket came rather late in life, as my interest in the #menswear movement grew in the early 2000s.
It is only in the last 10-15 years that the happy coincidence that I was born the same year as the weavers of the Outer Hebrides decided to start Harris Tweed Association, the governing body of all tweed came to my knowledge. We will both turn fifty next year.

Concerning the jacket in question, the real hunt for the perfect one started with, as it often does for me, with movies and books. Robert Redford in Days of the Condor, the boys of Dead Poets Society and let us not to forget Chris O´Donnell and his near-perfect tweed jacket in the (menswear) classic, Scent of a Woman.

When the holy grail of Ivy-oriented books was re-released in an English version in 2010 I immediately secured my copy. Take Ivy, by the photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida was originally published in Japan in 1965 and is a collection of pictures from different American Ivy League universities. My favorite one: The guy snapped from behind, photographed without knowing it – one hand in the pocket of his madras shorts, a cigarette in the other, chunky white socks and loafers. And a grey tweed jacket with a nice and roomy fit. The Italians call it sprezzatura, for the young man in the picture it´s nothing more than a Sunday stroll. For me, this book has all the inspiration needed to build the perfect wardrobe for both summer and winter.

Five years later the author W. David Marx published his book Ametora – How Japan Saved American Style, and this is still my absolute favorite book about menswear. Still available to buy, I highly recommend this book to anyone that want to understand more about not just Ivy League/preppy style, but also jeans- and vintage culture and the differences between getting dressed in Japan and the United States. Literally, look no further than these two classics.

But, if you want to take it one step further down the rabbit hole I´d look out for the 2017 Autum/Winter edition of Popeye Magazine, which contains my style icon Andy Spade´s Classic Handbook for City Boys – a photo series and guide to all things preppy. His grey herringbone tweed jacket combined with a scruffy pair of chinos is pure perfection.

The beauty of the grey herringbone tweed jacket is that it works with almost everything and in almost any setting along the formal spectrum of clothing:

With a pair of chinos (I prefer mine well-used) a sweater and sneakers, the look is old-school sporty.

Switch the sneakers with a pair of loafers and remove the sweater and you can go straight from the football field to the library.

The jacket is perfect with a pair of light blue jeans, a button-down Oxford shirt and a repp tie. Add a pair of suede derbies for a great formal/unformal combination.

If you need to attend, say an art gallery opening, a pair of grey trousers and a grey turtleneck sweater underneath the jacket gives you a monochrome look that will blend in and stand out at the same time. Remember to smile, or people might think that you are the artist.

Ditch the sweater for a white button-down shirt and a black knitted tie for a more formal version. Now you are the professor, giving your lecture series in political science.

Here in Oslo, we have just entered the cold season, and tweed is imperative to make it through the months ahead. There is a lot to choose from this season, and I encourage you all to pick whatever style and weave that works best for you.

Me, I'm staying with grey and know I will not regret it.