Why Plaid is Rad
By Liz Reichart, A&E Editor
This fall’s most daring trend? Try a print that’s been around since the 1700’s, and yet is anything but old looking. Plaid, originating from the Scottish word “tartan”, is typically a pattern consisting of crisscrossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colors. What used to be a Scottish military uniform, and is still often greeted with a groan from hoards of private school girls, now graces the New York Spring 2014 runways of Rodarte, Victoria Beckham, Vera Wang and Tommy Hilfiger. But don’t let the confusing nature of this textile scare you away from adding plaid to your wardrobe this autumn.
Let’s take a journey through fashion history so that we may learn its ways, demonstrated by time’s greatest wearers of the print. In 1914, the Adventures of Paul Bunyun the lumberjack hero came to life through the pen of William Laughead. Paul and his flannel shirt have been celebrated in everything from theme parks to cartoons. In the 1920’s, a British fashion house by the name of Burberry lined their first trench coat with their signature check- one of the most famous and most recognizable patterns to this day. The 1950’s saw the rise of pleated plaid skirts, particularly in school-aged girls. In 1963, The Beach Boys made the Pendleton plaid shirt famous by wearing it side by side holding a surfboard on the album “Surfer Girl.” The 1970’s saw the popularity of Monty Python’s “The Lumberjack Song,” complete with, you guessed it, a music video featuring a plaid-wearing lumberjack, played by Michael Palin. The 1980’s ushered in the era of Pee-wee Herman, famously wearing his light grey plaid suit. In the late 80’s and early 90’s, the rise of grunge fashion led by music icon Kurt Cobain allowed plaid to reach the heights of it popularity. Flannel were to be worn open over ripped band shirts, or tied around the waist so that the arms tied.
In the 1990’s, we learned that matching plaid is fine craft. Be wise. The rise of plaid in our time, I think, was spawned by the 1994 film “Clueless”, in which Barbie doll Cher Horowitz and posse don matching plaid blazers and pleated tennis skorts. These scenes were the inspiration for Iggy Azeala’s “Fancy” music video, which just premiered this year. The point is that plaid isn’t a poor mans pattern any longer. It’s for the aristocrats of our time. Nowadays, celebrities like Robert Pattinson, Lindsay Lohan, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Olsen twins are known plaid fans and wear the pattern on the daily. Has there ever been so versatile a fashion trend as to be worn by surfers and hipsters, celebrities and farmers, models and stay at home moms? Plaid is truly the everyman’s trend if there ever was one.