Houndstooth - Imprint (NYC)

Chung
by shepherds to protect them from bad weather. 7 Legend has us believe that a clerk
at a cloth merchant misread what was described as tweel and was recorded as
tweed. 8 An eminent Scottish philologist named W.F.H. Nicolaisen explains a more
plausible explanation that tweel is a parallel form of twill and twilling as twilling is a
parallel by tweeling or tweedling. Thus tweel could stand for tweeling and tweed
short for tweedling. 9 The rough, rugged, and often nubby woolen fabric originated
from Scotland is typically mixed of flecked colors made either plain or twill weave
having a check or herringbone pattern. 10
During the seventeenth century the Scottish industry produced tweeds of
coarse cloth made of local wool by native labor serving the majority of the
population. In the early part of the century, “plaiding and cloth were said to be
among the most important of Scottish exports.” 11 By the late 1680s the course
woolen trade declined due to economic and political reasons. Scottish society
rejected home produced goods and started wearing clothes constructed from cloths
imported from England and France. During the latter part of the eighteenth century
and early part of the nineteenth century the wool manufacturing in Scotland re-­‐
emerged and flourished. A black and white checked plaid garment became popular
with Border shepherds in the Scottish highlands. The small check plaids became
closely associated with the Scottish shepherd when described in literature and
illustrated in paintings. The shepherds’ check, as noted by author Clifford Gulvin,
was a “traditional pattern of the shawls or plaids worn by the Border shepherds and
introduced to the Highlands along with the sheep late in the eighteenth century.” 12
This rectangular piece of woolen material about four yards long by a yard and a half
4