Tweed is expensive to produce and therefore to buy, but has always been regarded as a sensible investment, something you would expect to wear for years. In The Village, it is an indication of the new social position of the previously lowly Miss Moodie, who used to wear "the unnoticeable stockinette dress and cardigan of the respectable tradeswoman". But now, to Miss Porteous' snobbish confusion, she wears a tweed suit which, in Priory Dean is the "unassailable uniform" of the gentry. She may not be in an original Balenciaga suit (1954, V&A ), but perhaps something inspired by this style.