Written by Menswear Style in Interviews on the 29th May 2023

Fashion photographer Guy Hills launched British brand Dashing Tweeds in 2006 with the talented woven textiles designer Kirsty McDougall. Guy was looking to create a British high quality modern tweed that could be worn in the city. His passion was to combine traditional sportswear with new designs and technical yarns. Guy and Kirsty set up their weave design studio in East London, using the best mills in the country to weave their luxury woven designs. With the cloths instant success amongst Savile Row tailors, the Dashing Tweeds Flagship store opened in 2014 in Mayfair, and then moved to Marylebone in 2018.

Dashing Tweeds is modernising the cloth by working with technical yarns in combination with wools. They are bringing tweed to town as more people now live in the city and by combining modern sportswear with the traditional, they are creating a whole new concept in tailored wear. They have worked on numerous joint projects and collaborations with brands such as Pharrell Williams’ Billionaires Boys Club, Fred Perry, Box Fresh, Hudson Shoes and most recently with Nike Labs in Shoreditch who are offering bespoke Air Force 1s.

In a recent episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interviewed Guy Hills, Founder of fabrics and tailoring business Dashing Tweeds about his background in fashion photography and the founding story of his brand. Peter Brooker and Guy talked about the origins of tweed, urban and fashion-orientated focus, the different methods of manufacturing tweed, collaborating with Converse, tailoring through the decades, educating men on style, and working with costume designers.

“We've worked with the film industry a lot over the years. We basically design fabrics for major films which is very exciting. Most men are terrified of colour and that's a big aspect of Dashing Tweeds. It is a journey for people when they start wearing colour and interesting textures. If people knew more on fashion history, they would realise that they've just been fed a diet of white bread and butter for years, and all the interesting flavours have been missing because it doesn't make economic sense for the big companies. People have forgotten that there used to be a whole etiquette of how expensive certain colours were. Black was the costliest colour to manufacture so people were wearing black just because it was so expensive.”

This is a shortened transcribed edit of episode 197 of the MenswearStyle Podcast with Guy Hills, Founder of Fabrics and Tailoring business dashingtweeds.co.uk. You can listen to the full version on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.

We sit down with Guy Hills from Dashing Tweeds designed by Kirsty McDougall which is known for its British high quality modern tweed.