Dust Off Your Nirvana Tapes, PLAID Is Officially Back

by MIKEL MCCOY · March 4, 2008

    plaid

    So plaid is really really popular rt now. (see clipping from today's Metro above). Not exactly earth shakingly breaking news, just saying we've not seen as much symmetric pattern and color on men's shirts since the apex of the early 90s grunge years. Though this time it seems to be more about the plaid as opposed to flannel. There is a difference.

    plaid

    I'm all for it really. And it's not like I'm the Sartorialist or anything, but in the everyday man's closet of gray/navy/black conservatism where the color spectrum (see above) is more a theoretical concept than it is a functional repository of possible options, plaid gives men the 'OK' to peacock it out a little bit, which is good, cause really why should the fairer sex have all the color fun? And since plaid or tartan has been around since the the time of the Iron Age from the Northern route of the Silk Road in Western China, to the isles of Wales and Scotland, it's kinda universal . It only makes sense that plaid never ever really goes away and at times, like rt now, spikes and explodes in popularity. This current plaid spike I like to attribute to the ever more abundant 'fond 1990s look back' that has also made colors more neon and prints more graphic(y) lately Plus it all works out well for the urban mountain man/farmer sophisticate looks that always do the fall/winter months so proudly.