RULE 1

Banish the predictable. Your tweed pieces will stand out more if you wear them with a contrasting texture. Thus, our model wears a pretty tweed party dress with a cozy fur shrug, and Madonna sasses up cropped men’s-style tweed trousers with a sparkling sequined zip-front top.

RULE 2

Mix it up! Wearing a matching tweed suit with neutral accents is the quickest way to add 20 years to your age. The young way to wear one is to toss a striped or patterned top into the mix (check out Finola Hughes’ super combo, below), or an accessory in a different, coordinating tweed.

RULE 3

Jeans + tweed = wow! Follow trend-setter Gwyneth Paltrow’s lead and wear a prim tweed jacket with slouchy blue jeans. If you want to add extra pizzazz, do like our model and make sure your denims ride low on your tummy.

Rule 4

Go for a coat. If you only plan to buy one tweed thing this fall, follow actress Tia Carrere’s example and make it a snazzy coat. Talk about versatile! The right tweed coat works for day or night, workdays or nights out. And it never goes out of style.