Tweed - Fashions latest Fetish.
 Tweed, fashions latest fetish and the famous Great British fabric, woven for centuries in the North of England and Scotland for the 'Elite Crowd'. In the 18th Century tweed was the fabric of choice by people living in the country, as it was known for its warmth, strength and practicality. Tweed's properties made it ideal for the hunting, shooting and fishing traditionalists.
Yorkshire and Scotland are renowned for their excellence in the textile industry, especially after World War Two when they were the biggest exporters of tweed and textiles in the World. Since then the size of the industry has declined, however as designers all over the world are clambouring to get thier hands on this material these very experienced textile mills are the most sought after across the world.
Tweed is now much more than a working and practical fabric. Regularly seen on the catwalk this sumptuous cloth has become a must have to many designers and due to the recent demand tweed has begun immerging on the high street. Tweed has been praised and accredited in Vogue for its elegance, timeless qualities and deemed the epitome of British style.
Holland Cooper choose to use both Cheviot tweed and Shetland tweed to make their luxury garments; the first type is made from the wool of the Cheviot sheep that originates from the Cheviot Hills in the South of Scotland and North of England. The second type mentioned is made from the Shetland Sheep.
Most of the cloth labelled 'Shetland' is woven of wool of Shetland type. It does not come from Shetland breed, and certainly not from the Shetland Islands. But all our Shetland cloth is woven from Authentic Shetland Wool, ie Wool from Shetland sheep grown on the Shetland Islands. It is truly the real McCoy.
The Shetland sheep is the smallest of the British breeds, most probably brought to the Scottish Islands by the Vikings who settled there over a thousand years ago. They retain many characteristics of wild sheep, and are small-bodied animals with a distinctive face and nose, bright eyes, small erect ears and usually wool on the forehead. A distinguishing feature is their fluke-shaped tail, broad at the base and tapering to a point. Rams have nice round horns while ewes are horn-less.
Their wool is surprisingly fine and has a silky handle, the great 18th century agriculturalist Sir John Sinclair called it 'the Cashmere of the North'. The fleeces weigh only 1.5 Kgs with a staple length of about 10 cm and a wavy tight crimp.
The fleeces are mainly white, but sometimes Moorit ( reddish brown ), Shaela ( steel grey ) or Black ( dark brown )
They are very hardy and agile sheep, able to withstand harsh weather conditions. They pick their way down vertiginous paths to the sea shore, where eating seaweed on the beaches round the islands. They also make ideal mothers, and are much sought after to cross with Cheviot for their mothering abilities. They are both prolific and long lived, in fact there is an instance at Berry Farm, Scalloway of a ewe that had twins at the ripe old age of twenty-one years and lived on for a further 6 years.
Our chosen Mill have been using Authentic Shetland in their range of very British Cloths for many years, and through a subsiduary actually inherited the archive of a small Shetland weaving company called Thomas Aidie that supplied the Shetland suiting that clothed Sir Edmund Hilary when he climbed Everest in 1953. The raising of sheep for wool has long been an important part of the economy and social life on the islands, but the product itself has become famous all over the world.
The fabulously unique colours these tweeds can be woven into represents Holland Cooper’s style and flare, creating the most exciting tweed campaign to date.
 Holland Cooper Style
For 2011 there is colour, think burnt Orange, suductive Reds and vintage Chocolate; there is detail with gold embellishd buttons and encrusted buckles and there is plenty of prettiness and character. This collection is designed to take you from the shooting field to the members enclosure with ease.
Fantasy and reality collide in the country as Jade holland Cooper designs the new tweeds for this year - Holland Cooper has successfully raised the game for British made Design by refusing to be polite, modest or quiet about its amibition. This year sees tweed being given its latest urban re - incarnation destined to win even the most sceptical tweed wearers over.
Each year we carefully select tweeds that are woven to the highest standard representing the luxurious quality of Holland Coopers unique garments. We have a very tough rulebook when sourcing our new tweeds. The mills chosen to weave the chosen fabrics are hand picked by our experienced production team to achieve the highest standard of cloth available. Tweed used to have a masculine feel about it, but now Holland Cooper have sought a softer more feminine side to the Great British fabric by weaving Cashmere and Angora through a selection of our tweeds in pastel shades.
The opulent suedes that add vibrant colour and pure romance to our collection each year come from Italy, again they are sourced by our experienced production team making sure we only use top quality A grade suedes.
Jade Holland Cooper has inspired a new wave of strong, sexy urban chic country wear - be apart of the Holland Cooper and enjoy the ulitmate experience.
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