Strictly speaking, tweed is a fabric with a diagonal weave, whose irregular appearance derived from the weaving of two or three weft* threads instead of just one.
The word “tweed” is a bastardization of “tweel,” the Scottish form of “twill.” Also of note: The River Tweed, which separates Scotland from England, was a major textile centers of the 19th Century.
*(The weft is the horizontal threads that are woven through the loom on the shuttle. The vertical threads through which they are woven are called the warp.)
The Major Houses of Tweed
Harris tweed is a special variety made famous by the Dowager Countess of Dunmore, who in the late 1840s took a loosely-knit group of cottage-industry weavers (spread out among the islands of Harris, Lewis, Uist, and Barr, in the Outer Hebrides) and sought to improve the quality and regularity of production, resulting in a wider market for their wares in London. The label Harris Tweed guaranteed that the cloth was made from pure virgin wool, carded, woven, spun, and hand-dyed with plant dyes by the inhabitants of those islands. Harris Tweed became a registered trademark in 1909 and the logo, a globe, is taken from the Dunmore family crest. Harris Tweed is the only fabric in the world governed by its own Act of Parliament.
Donegal tweed is made primarily by Magee, a historic concern founded in Donegal Town, Ulster, Ireland. Magee was founded in 1866 as a drapery shop; in the 1870s, it began selling local Irish tweeds, flecked with colors that derived from local dyes.
Linton tweed is made in England by the Linton company, founded in 1912 by Scotsman William Linton in the Caldewgate area of Carlisle, a small city situated close to the Scottish border and near the famous Lake District. Initially Linton employed two salesmen with ponies and traps who travelled the Lake District buying wool and selling woollen suit lengths. Thanks to an early introduction to Coco Chanel in the 1920s, Linton grew to be a major supplier of tweed to womenswear designers over the course of the 20th century, including Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, Courreges, Balmain, YSL, and later, Marc Jacobs and Victoria Beckham.