A man’s loins must be allowed to breathe. They must be able to withstand the elements. His lower limbs need their breathing space too and densely woven pure cotton, dense moss, mushroom, and eggplant are what he likes to wrap up in and feel close to his skin.
Warm, brushable, wind and water-resistant, moleskins are not just great for crashing through bracken and bramble with a gun broken across your arm while impersonating an English country squire or maybe, if you match with a puffy olive quilted gilet and a hard-wearing Tattersall or Oxford shirt, even a landed Marquis but you can also lope around in town in them and a pair of Aonach 10” field boots and talk farming and land estate business in a thatched pub in a pair.
Moleskin are versatile, just as good for an early morning walk in your Hogg’s Aqua Tuff Rigger Wellington botts around the grounds in the fog with your tweed field coat as a stroll of a crisp afternoon over your grouse moor in the company of some upper-class Kinloch technical tweed breeks.
Hoggs shoes – from rubber-soled brogues and Glengarry to women’s jodhpur dealers, Braemars and paddock brogue Chelseas, are some of the best shoes you can buy.
Scotland’s Hoggs of Fife has specialized in the quintessential British Field Look since 1888. The company first began making hand welted country footwear in 1888 in Strathmiglo, Fife and, now based in Cupar in the East Neuk Kingdom of Fife, an hour from Edinburgh and half an hour from St Andrews, the home of golf, it is still owned and managed by the Hogg family and still hand-making sturdy rubber boots, Technical Pro Look country clothing and all kinds of fashion statements for the country enthusiast and truly rural. Of both sexes.
Hoggs of Fife Monarch premium 16 oz moleskins come in blue, green and lovat. The House of Bruar Moleskin, another great country wear name, come in eggplant, garnet, loden as well as Conservative navy and Establishment dark tan. A French bearer keeps the front flat and the look enduring.
Moleskin cloth can be traced back to medieval Europe where the fabric was first made to be used by farmers and hunters. The fabric is a part of the group of fabrics known as fustians which were traditionally produced in the East Lancashire and CalderValley West Yorkshire districts of England. The Calder Valley in West Yorkshire. Brisbane Moss is now the largest remaining StockHouse of both corduroys and moleskins in Great Britain.
Moleskin is resurfacing with canvas and denim eschewed in favor of the durable English sportsman’s style.
No moles are actually harmed in the making of a pair of moleskin pants. The name comes from the fabric’s similarity to a velvety-furred burrowing subterranean mammal. Fustian is a tight-knit group of fabrics with slight naps – like corduroy and velvet. The brushed surface and dense weave of the material are thorn-proof and windproof.
This type of fabric may be named after the city of Fustat in Cairo which produced sturdy woven clothing created with a linen warp and cotton weft. By the mid-nineteenth century. this family of fabric encompassed heavy weft or cut weft cloths.
Before the advent of mechanized looms, one fustian fabric weaver produced only a single yard of the material within 12 hours. It was also common to carry out additional cutting and brushing procedures to develop extraordinary characteristics within the fabric.
The finished moleskin is brushed and sheared right on the weft-face to create a uniform nap. This results in a soft handle and supple appearance. Varieties of Moleskin, such as Swansdown, Imperial, O’Neil, and Patent – have emerged over the years. Moleskins are garments for all seasons.
