Herringbone pattern: what it is and how to wear it

What the herringbone pattern is

In cloth, herringbone is a weave rather than a print. It starts from a twill, the weave that gives denim and gabardine their diagonal ribs, and then reverses the direction of the diagonal every few threads. A column of ribs slanting one way sits next to a column slanting the other way, and together they form a zigzag of V shapes running up the fabric. Our explainer on twill fabric covers the basic weave it is built from.

The detail that defines true herringbone is the break. Where the diagonal changes direction, the ribs do not meet in a clean point; they are offset by a thread or so, so each V looks slightly staggered. That is why weavers call herringbone a broken twill. The reversals also help the cloth hold its shape, and they make the fabric catch the light differently from column to column, which gives even a single color a sense of movement.

The name is descriptive: the pattern resembles the skeleton of a herring, with a spine and ribs angled on either side. Herringbone is usually woven in wool, and it is one of the most common structures in tweed and in suiting and coating cloth, but it also appears in cotton shirting, linen and workwear.

Herringbone vs chevron, twill and houndstooth

Chevron and herringbone both zigzag, and people use the words loosely. The practical difference is at the turn. In a chevron, the lines meet in a continuous, sharp point, like a row of stacked V shapes. In herringbone, the columns are offset where they meet, so the zigzag looks broken. In fabric, a chevron twill with a clean point also exists, and is sometimes sold as herringbone, but the classic cloth has the break.

Plain twill has diagonal ribs running in one direction only, with no zigzag. Houndstooth is also a twill, and the two often sit side by side in tweed, but houndstooth is a check made of pointed, broken squares in two contrasting colors; our guide to the houndstooth pattern shows the difference in detail. If you see columns of V shapes, it is herringbone. If you see jagged squares, it is houndstooth.

Where herringbone comes from

Herringbone is one of the oldest patterns in weaving. Surviving examples include woolen textiles from the Alps dated to roughly 800 to 500 BCE, a cloth fragment from Pompeii, and pieces found near Hadrian's Wall. The Romans also used the pattern in brick and stone paving, which they called opus spicatum, because setting bricks at angles spreads the load across them.

In clothing, herringbone became a mainstay of British country tweeds and city suitings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also had a workwear life: during and after the Second World War, several armies, including the United States Army, issued fatigues in cotton herringbone twill, known in American service as HBTs. That durable, softly textured cotton is still used in chore jackets and work trousers.

How to wear herringbone

Herringbone behaves more like a texture than a pattern, so treat it almost as a solid. A gray herringbone coat or a brown herringbone jacket goes with anything its color would go with, and you can wear it with a striped shirt or a patterned scarf without the clash that two strong patterns would create. The smaller and lower in contrast the zigzag, the more formal and quiet it reads; a large, high contrast herringbone is more casual and country.

For men, the classic herringbone jacket is a wool tweed sport coat worn with flannel trousers, chinos or dark jeans, an oxford shirt and brown shoes or boots. A charcoal herringbone suit in a fine worsted is sober enough for most offices, and a herringbone overcoat works over both suits and casual clothes. For more on fitting a jacket, see how a suit should fit.

For women, a herringbone blazer over a knit and jeans, a long herringbone wool coat over a dress or trousers, and wide leg herringbone trousers with a fitted sweater are all easy to wear. A herringbone pencil or A line skirt with tights and ankle boots is a good autumn outfit. The pattern works in gray, brown, navy, cream and olive, and it suits styles as different as dark academia and minimal city dressing.

Herringbone is mostly a cool weather choice in wool, but cotton and linen herringbone shirts, trousers and jackets are comfortable in spring and summer, and they look a little richer than a plain weave in the same color.

Herringbone necklaces, floors and knits

Outside cloth, the word turns up in three other places a clothing reader might meet it. A herringbone necklace is a flat chain made of short, slanted links that lie side by side, so the chain looks like a smooth, liquid band of metal with a herringbone texture. Because the links are flat, these chains can kink if they are bent sharply or tangled, so lay them flat or hang them rather than tossing them into a pouch; our guide to layering necklaces shows how a flat chain sits with finer ones.

Herringbone flooring and tile use the same rectangles set at angles, with the ends of each piece butted against the side of the next, while chevron floors use pieces cut at an angle so they meet in a clean point. In knitting, a herringbone stitch produces a dense, woven looking fabric often used for scarves and cowls. It is a different technique from the cable knit sweater, which twists groups of stitches into raised ropes.

How to care for herringbone clothes

Care follows the fiber, not the pattern, so start with the label. Wool herringbone jackets, suits and coats should be brushed after wearing, hung on a shaped hanger and aired, then professionally cleaned only when needed, since their internal structure can distort in water. Steam refreshes them between cleanings; our guide to steaming clothes covers how to do it without shine.

Cotton herringbone shirts and workwear can usually be machine washed like other cotton, and linen herringbone follows the rules for linen. Wool herringbone scarves and knits generally need a hand wash in lukewarm water, about 86°F (30°C), with a wool detergent, then flat drying. The zigzag hides small marks well, but it also hides lint and pilling until they build up, so a quick brush now and then keeps it crisp.