E-Mail This Article to a Friend Full tweed ahead Traditionally masculine fabric suits women just as well BY NINA SCHWARTZ

The fashion buzzword this fall is femininity. Full skirts, prim suits, and dainty accessories. And yet, in the grand tradition of confusing couture, the fabric this season is tweed. Now, maybe it’s just me, but when I think tweed, I think of sporty English gentlemen hunting fox or brandy-sipping old-school academics. I think of full-bearded Scotsmen and golfers with pompons on their jaunty hats. Am I wrong? Since when is tweed feminine and sexy?

Since now, apparently, as designers around the globe turn to this rough-textured wool to create entire wardrobes. The look is strong meets sweet, feminine meets masculine, 1950s housewife meets 1890s marksman. And it’s everywhere. You could tweed yourself from head to toe, if it were socially acceptable. Which, incidentally, it isn’t.

Let’s start from the top. Urban Outfitters is selling a tweed flapper-style cloche in tan with multicolored plaid ($24) to go with your long pearls and crazy Charleston. Jasmine Sola is offering a variety of tweed fedoras ($28–$58), the perfect statement of tough girlishness. Jasmine is also showing a selection of soft and hard tweed headbands ($14) in an array of colors and patterns, a classic touch that would make Charlotte York proud.

Tweed originally was intended for blazers and coats, and for good reason: it makes for sleek, classy outerwear, and it actually holds up well in the rain. Jasmine has a beautiful coat by Rina Scimento ($198) in green and purple, and the Gap makes a chic belted trench in houndstooth ($128). Never to be underestimated, Target has an adorable silk tweed blazer ($49.99 on clearance — hurry!), cropped at the waist with grosgrain-ribbon trim and a removable silk flower at the lapel. Urban Outfitters’ line, Urban Renewals, includes a random collection of vintage blazers ($49), many of which are in tweeds exactly like your grandpa used to wear. Be sure to pair them with something extra-feminine to balance out the look.

Then there are the skirts, in raggedy pink, blue, and black-and-white ($58) at Urban, and in a lightweight mini ($48) or a pleated knee-length ($54) at the Gap. J. Crew has an entire line of houndstooth items, including a belted shift dress ($148), and Thom Brown has the walls lined with tweed skirts of all colors. And let us not forget the handbags, at Jasmine in houndstooth ($28) with pink-leather trim, at the Gap in patchwork plaid ($39.50), and in all colors, shapes, and sizes ($12.99–$14.99) at Target. And if you’re the type to take a trend and really run with it, Target even has a variety of watches with leather-and-tweed bands ($12.99).

Last, but absolutely not least, we come down to the shoes. And it’s the shoes that really make this slightly itchy trend work. Sam Edelman sells several leather-trimmed, colorful tweed shoes in flats ($69) and heels ($79) at Jasmine, and Nine West’s knee-high " patches " boot ($159) is a bold look in top-to-bottom gray tweed with a sweet little bow on the side. Chinese Laundry has a sky-high version ($60), available at various locations, in black and fuchsia with a peep-toe and a big plastic button on the front for an old-fashioned touch. Steve Madden doesn’t disappoint with a large selection of tweed shoes, from innocent flats to four-inch-heeled peep-toe pumps with a flower detail.

So tally-ho and sally forth and all that, and buy yourself something cute and tweedy. How can you go wrong with an outfit that goes just as well with your designer leather boots as it does with your hunting spaniel? You just can’t.

Where to find it:

• Chinese Laundry, various locations; www.chineselaundry.com

• The Gap, various locations; www.gap.com

• J. Crew, various locations, www.jcrew.com

• Jasmine Sola, 344 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 867-4636; 37A Brattle Street, Cambridge, (617) 354-6043; www.jasminesola.com

• Target, various locations; www.target.com

• Nine West, various locations; www.ninewest.com

• Steve Madden, various locations; www.stevemadden.com

• Thom Brown, 331 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 266-8722; CambridgeSide Galleria, 100 CambridgeSide Place, Cambridge, (617) 374-9894; www.thombrown.com

• Urban Outfitters, 361 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 236-0088; 11 JFK Street, Cambridge, (617) 864-0070; www.urbanoutfitters.com