How The Classic Tweed Jacket Got Cool

The bouclé tweed jacket once evoked an image of a certain sort of woman. Beyond Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel herself, who made a tweed jacket and a string of pearls her personal style signature in later life, a whole host of women (both actual and fictional) cemented its status as a signifier of old money and a certain buttoned-up conservatism. See the quintessential First Lady Jackie Kennedy; Bunny, Trey’s interfering mother in Sex and the City; or Gilmore Girls’s sharp-tongued Emily Gilmore.

And yet, when Coco Chanel first conceived the now iconic Chanel jacket back in 1954, it was anything but traditional. Inspired by the fabrics and construction of men’s tailoring, the jacket’s relaxed fit and simple silhouette were a reaction to the constricted, nipped-in waistlines that dominated the decade. It offered a freedom of movement at odds with the hourglass fit-and-flare of Dior’s post-war New Look.

Fast forward to the present day, and fashion insiders are embracing the piece once more, but in a way that channels Chanel’s original spirit of rebellion. Karl Lagerfeld, who was Chanel’s artistic creative director between 1983 and his death in 2019, once said: “There are things in fashion that never go out of style: jeans, a white shirt and a Chanel jacket.” The trifecta he described pretty much sums up the approach when it comes to styling a bouclé jacket in 2026.

Recent seasons have seen street-stylers subverting the jacket’s prim and proper connotations by pairing it with utilitarian cargos, logo tees, sporty separates and, of course, denim. Creative director Marc Jacobs has even become an unofficial bouclé jacket influencer this year, regularly posting variations on his preferred OOTD: bouclé jacket, jeans and boots. Chanel’s celebrated new creative director, Matthieu Blazy, layered a burgundy bouclé jacket over a tourist tat-coded “I love New York” T-shirt for the brand’s pre-fall 2026 show. Bye bye Bunny, hello It-girl.

Luckily, you don’t need to have a Chanel budget to lean into the trend (although there are plenty of vintage iterations to be found on resale sites), as countless other brands – from H&M to M&S, Isabel Marant to Sacai – offer versions of the tweed jacket. This autumn, we’ll be taking a leaf out of Marc Jacobs’s book and sticking with a simple bouclé jacket, crew-neck tee, low-slung jeans and boots; then when winter hits, we’ll be adding in a black cashmere knit, khaki cargo trousers and loafers.

Scroll down to see and shop the best bouclé jackets, plus tips on how to style them.

Bouclé jacket + cargos

Cream jacket + vintage tee

Bouclé bomber + pencil skirt

Colourful jacket + baggy jeans