The herringbone pattern is familiar in men’s jackets and suits. Wide, narrow, loud or restrained, it has been with us for ever so long. How long, exactly? And how did it start? Like everything in menswear and, more widely, in clothing, it has an interesting story.
Ancient, the herringbone weave goes back a fair way: archeological records report herringbone leggings from around 800 BC. Romans wore herringbone, as did the tribes in what is now Scotland (not entirely surprising).
The weave is achieved with light and dark threads in diagonal pattern. The fact that it is called “herrinbone” suggests a provenance in northern climes where herring are common, though this is not proven. “Sardine bone” or “Cod bone” do not have quite the same ring, and curiously it was never just called “fish bone”.
Use of the broken twill weave in men’s and ladies’ clothing and coats started to become common around about 1800. Using alternating right and left direction twills, looms could be set to weave herringbone on an industrial scale, once mass production weaving became possible.
There is no particular reason that it became associated with tweed, but it did. That said, cotton herringbone is common for shirts, and of course Smith Woolens uses a herringbone weave for its famous Solaro cloth.
It makes a nice variation on plain weaves, particularly for navy and grey office suits. AskOkey’s custom cloth, the Lesser 17 oz revival, features a muted herringbone pattern with a faint stripe between each pair of bones.
