20 Ways to Wear Plaid

This autumn you can re-ignite your love affair with plaid and tartan as it’s just about everywhere and at every price range from designer to high street.

You can pick a traditionally or sexily styled dress or skirt, an easy shirt to wear over jeans, or slim pants which to my mind look best with a high neck tight fitting jumper and heels or ankle boots.

Most of the colour-ways on offer are either extremely traditional, such as claret and navy or black with perhaps a touch of beige or green, or totally outrageous such as the MQ Alexander McQueen dress above. 

We tend to think of tartan and plaid as more or less the same thing and it gets confusing to go into the actual differences.  Search for either on any fashion website and you’re quite likely to get the same answers.  Put in ‘check’ and you’ll find plaids as well. Just don’t go calling tartan, plaid, in Scotland. 

This is a great year for plaid or tartan however you want to wear it, and there’s never been a better time to have a bit of plaid about your person.  Preferably only one, though.



In the same way as most prints, take your plaid in small doses, head to toe matchy-matchy can look too much even if the fashion pages tell you otherwise.  I love Oasis’s slim plaid pants, Phase Eight’s sleeveless plaid dress, Isabel Marant’s cashmere plaid scarf and Vivienne Westwood’s tartan tote in particular.

  

It’s easy to make plaid look old fashioned, so wear modern accessories or dresses and skirts with ruching details that pencil down to below the knee.  Elizabeth and James seersucker plaid skirt is a perfect example.  A simple top, a black bag and heels and you’re done.

Plaid can be so many things, from extremely classic to chic and modern.  Get your plaid persona right from the start.   Particularly if you’re going to invest in a designer piece.