Constance Karol Burks

My dissertation focuses on the production, promotion, and consumption of tweed in Britain between 1919 and 1939, with particular focus on the production centres in the Scottish Borders, Outer Hebrides and West Riding of Yorkshire. A study of primary material and contemporary sources suggests that the term (an accidental fabrication in itself), along with the cloth, evolved and adapted far beyond its initial incarnation.

The technology of production, the demands of the market and promotional techniques each influenced the nature and reception of tweed. During the interwar period, the term ‘tweed’ was applied to an expanding range of textiles that encompassed an ever-growing mix of fibres, weights, constructions, characteristics and designs in contrast with the traditional description of tweed. Although the meaning of the term shifted and modernised, it maintained its association with the past, retaining complex and sometimes contradictory notions of tradition, national identity and heritage.

By deconstructing each characteristic of the wide range of textiles that were christened ‘tweed’ in the interwar years, I argue that by the 1930s the term tweed had moved beyond a textile definition and had become above anything else a marketing term.

This study grants attention to the impressively varied techniques employed in the design and weaving of tweeds during this period, which has thus far not been explored or appreciated in existing studies of textile design. Through close examination of material evidence within mill archives, trade publications, promotional materials and fashion press, I track the adapting use of the term tweed in everyday dress and fashion, and explore how tweed remained fashionable and desirable alongside widespread dissemination and competition from new fibres and fabrics.