From 50's rockabilly, to the 70's punk rock era, to 90's grunge, plaid has quite the
colorful history. Plaid actually goes as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries
and was derived in Scotland. During England and Scotland's rival years,
the English actually banned plaid and would throw anyone who wore the
Scottish trademark into jail, sometimes for years. You can see then why all the rebels of the 20th century decades
were attracted to plaid so much. The rockabilly greasers who listened to music their parents just didn't get, punk rockers who were so anti-establishment and the angst ridden youth of grunge. Yet plaid was a fashion that you would normally see only on men.
How women started wearing plaid, I picture going like this; 'On a
cold and rainy night in New York, Seattle or a quiet little town
somewhere in the Midwest, a couple is watching a
movie and drinking wine. The boyfriend's plaid shirt is lying next to them on the couch,
he offers it to her to warm her up. She forgets to give the plaid shirt
back, oops, brings it home and realizes how amazing it looks with jeans, some boots or heels and how fun it is to accessorize with jewelry and scarves. She starts to wear it out and about. People in
the town or city streets see how cool and casual this look is on her,
and it spreads like wildfire, sweeping the world of women, creating
plaid thieving gals everywhere. Needless to say the boyfriend didn't get
his plaid shirt back.' Now plaid is made for women as much as it still
is for men.
Many designers have incorporated plaid into their collections of dresses, pants, suits, hats and scarves. It looks like plaid will continue to be a part of fashion culture for
generations to come and why not, it's probably, dare I say, the most
versatile staple piece of all time.
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