"Mad Men" Trouser Question

[Patrick Murtha]

In the most recent "Mad Men" episode called "The Mountain King," which I have not seen yet (I'm still working my way through the first season), Don Draper wears a pair of to-die-for speckled grey trousers:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2703725568/tt0804503

Pardon my ignorance, but is that fabric a tweed? Does this particular grey cloth have a more particular name? I know I've seen it before, but I don't own pants or suiting in that cloth and it has instantly shot to the top of my must-have list. Who can enlighten me among the Sartorially Wise? Is there a contemporary source for such pants or suit?

 

[Hugh Beaumont]

"spoiler"


That pic is from a flashback from about 1950 or so.....

"end spoiler"

I am guessing they are a wool tweed.

 

[Tomasso]

They look like Donegal tweed, grey with white kneps. The fabric, while not particularly exotic, won't be that easy to find OTR. You might try Ralph. Or better yet, direct your query to Peter (bookster1uk@hotmail.com) at Bookster. And, tell him you're a Lounger.

 

[Feraud]

While not exactly like the Don Draper pant, here is a pair of RL pants I purchased a while back.
These are the heaviest tweed I have come across in a long while. A great pair of pants.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Those are stylin'! I'll look into whether they are still available.

 

[Feraud]

Check local outlets.

 

[bookster1uk]

In the most recent "Mad Men" episode called "The Mountain King," which I have not seen yet (I'm still working my way through the first season), Don Draper wears a pair of to-die-for speckled grey trousers:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2703725568/tt0804503

Pardon my ignorance, but is that fabric a tweed? Does this particular grey cloth have a more particular name? I know I've seen it before, but I don't own pants or suiting in that cloth and it has instantly shot to the top of my must-have list. Who can enlighten me among the Sartorially Wise? Is there a contemporary source for such pants or suit?

It looks like a heavy Irish type tweed, possibly Donegal , but that is a widely used term and seems to appear mainly on lightweight examples, we have a splendid jacket , similar in shade to the RL pics below, in our ebay collection. At the moment the only one we offer is is by JG Hardy, in a lighter weight but its stunning, just made up a suit for the editor of The Chap magazine, so may be able to post some pics in due course. I'll keep my eye open for some Irish cloths to add to our range, but at the mo our exclusive Harris Tweed adventure is taking up my time. 3 patterns have arrived, but I just have not had time to post pics.
Onward and Upward, Tweedmeister Flash

 

[reetpleat]

Looks to me like a fleck, which I suppose is a kind of tweed, but the term commonly used is fleck, or often atomic and other fifties words. It is a rougher heavier wool with several colors running through in horizontal and vertical pronounced bits of one color.

Not too rare in vintage, usually pleated but not always. Unfortunately, slacks do not bring all that much on ebay so people do not seem to list them much.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Thank you! That is very helpful. "Fleck" -- I like that, it captures the look of the pants. I saved an Ebay search for "fleck" in my waist size, in case anything should turn up there.

 

[1930sam]

try the harris tweed website to see if anything similar is still getting made

 

[Edward]

The trousers Feraud posted above are identical to my Donegal Tweed jacket. My jacket is a Marks & Spencers, but I don't think they ever did trousers to match it.

fftopic:, but as Harris Tweed has been mentioned.... I heard a while back that there was a new controlling interest up there that was trying to simplify the system and limit Harris tweed to a set of five or six patterns only (from the 40 or so that have traditionally existed). Some arch-capitalist concern with only economies of scale and profit margins in mind... Any word on whether this is going ahead?

 

[Rambo66]

TDF

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I'll go for these trousers being Donegal tweed, too. Reetpleat has an interesting suggestion for an atomic fleck, but i fear the flecking (flocking?) is not nearly regular enough. Donegal generally has that wonderful randomness of fleck.

bk

 

[bookster1uk]

The trousers Feraud posted above are identical to my Donegal Tweed jacket. My jacket is a Marks & Spencers, but I don't think they ever did trousers to match it.

fftopic:, but as Harris Tweed has been mentioned.... I heard a while back that there was a new controlling interest up there that was trying to simplify the system and limit Harris tweed to a set of five or six patterns only (from the 40 or so that have traditionally existed). Some arch-capitalist concern with only economies of scale and profit margins in mind... Any word on whether this is going ahead?

As far as I know it is, we have been offered some cloths from the 'industrial' range, it is more than 5 patterns, but none that take our breath away , and we would much rather deal with and support small scale weavers on the islands direct, so all is not lost. We have our own exclusive designs in progress and to a weight we can specify, I have 3 in front of me now. When a couple more are ready we will make it available.Its a work of heart.

 

[reetpleat]

Actually, I am with the Baron. At a glance it looked like a fleck, but closer examination seems to indicate the absence of the strong vertical and horizontal lines I mentioned. I would say it is more of a donegal, but in a gray rather than the more common earth tones.