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“Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy,” Albert Einstein, the greatest nuclear physicist of the 20th century and an unlikely fashion muse, once averred. Turns out Al, who had his own distinctive brand of disheveled chic, was on to something beyond a mere theory of relativity. (Which is not, by the way, a treatise on how to get along with your family at dinner next week.)
Far beyond its association with detested school uniforms, plaid, worn with or without stripes, has a rich backstory: Though usually associated with kilt-wearing Scottish Highlanders, there is a much older history. A shard of the fabric was found buried with the remains of “the Cherchen Man,” a 3,000-year-old mummy uncovered in the western Chinese desert.
Three millennia later, the appeal of plaid remains undiminished, showing up in styles the Stewarts and MacDougalls, not to mention the Cherchen Man, could never have imagined. From high-heeled platform shoes that warm freezing feet, to ruffled neo-Victorian blouses for lurking under the mistletoe, to minis, trenches, slides, and scrunchies, a pop of plaid can take the chill off gray days. This season, when carolers show up at your door trilling, “Don we now our gay apparel,” they just might be talking about your terrific tartan trousers.
Here, our seasonal suggestions for a plethora of plaids.
