All Babes are Wolves: Mad for Plaid 2013

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Mad for Plaid 2013

In the wake of the grunge revival, I'm thrilled that one of my favorite fashion staples coincides with the latest looks - the plaid shirt. After I started writing this I saw the cover of Glamour France pop up in the Daily Mail - Amanda Seyfried in a fab red & black Richard Tisci by Givenchy plaid shirt.

Amanda Seyfried for Glamour France, September 2013

Designer plaid looks are turning up in many another glossy for Fall 2013 (including those by Tisci, Dries Van Noten and Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent), as below.

Carine Roitfeld and Julia Restoin Roitfeld
for Givenchy Fall 2013

Rosie Huntington-Whitely in Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent shirt,

Numero Tokyo, September 2013

Kate Bosworth for TopShop 2013

Sky Ferreira for ASOS

Dries Van Noten, Vogue Brazil April 2013

Dries Van Noten, ELLE Russia

Dries Van Noten, ELLE UK

Meghan Collison in Dies Van Noten shirts,
Vogue UK March 2013

Freja Beha Erichsen in Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent,
for Vogue UK, August 2013

Sasha Pivovarova in Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent,
Vogue Paris September 2013

Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy shirt,
Vogue France September 2013

French Vogue La Fievre Grunge shoot
by Mert & Marcus, September 2013 (all 4 images above)

Charlotte Coquelin in Dries Van Noten for Radicale

Philip Lim Spring 2013

Despite this resurgence, a good plaid shirt never really goes out of fashion. A leather boots, jeans, white tee and a shirt thrown casually on top or tied around the waist is many a rock chick and off duty model's uniform. My favourite ever plaid shirt was purchased 4 years ago. I wish I could say I got it from a vintage Americana store for a dollar and it probably belonged to a real cowboy, but no. It was not exactly a bargain, I found it while perusing Kate Sylvester's menswear range in 2009, upstairs in her High St Auckland Store which was set up as a cool kind of Rat Pack Mens' club/den. It's a gorgeous blue & grey number in butter-soft 100% cotton, with cute coconut buttons. The fit & style totally works on a girl so I was thrilled with it.

The plaid shirt style really took off in 1990 during the birth of the grunge era, a Seattle staple and Kurt Cobain fave. A pajama top did the same job. (I documented this era in my grunge post from a few years ago, here). Suddenly, the shirt of choice for lumberjacks, cowboys and tradies was a fashion favourite. Following are a few of my fave recent celeb plaid & check shirt looks.