Just about everyone goes plaid mad when the weather turns cooler, whether you reach for a high-end swanky coat…
or a downmarket bomber..
or snuggle into a vintage dressing gown…
Or perhaps your taste runs more to plaid plus-fours?
Whatever your plaid madness, maybe you wonder whether there’s a tartan for your Star Style type?
I’m here to tell you, there is!
And some of your favorite Hollywood types have been garbed in this bonnie pattern on-screen and off for decades!
Here’s a plaid primer for any Star Style type–including YOURS!
Bouncy bonnie beauties
Schooldays plaids are the staff of life for our Lively Girls-Next-Door.
There’s a whiff of chalk and a hint of lunchboxes about this type of plaid.
Symmetry and simplicity set the pace for this youthful type.
Classic Scotch tartans suit this type best.
All-American freshness and farm-bred wholesomeness are the hallmarks here.
If it makes you smile when you don it, you’ve got it right.
Remember, though, there shouldn’t be any confusion about your being a girl..
You should refrain from looking like you’ve gotten caught in the rain and had to borrow something from a ranch hand.
Life, after all, is seldom a Hallmark movie.
High class lassies
Classically Ladylike women bring a cultured, slightly ironic feel to plaid garments.
While the plaids might be standard issue…there’s always a restraint and elegance about them….
…the fabrics are of the finest (think Pendleton)…
The silhouettes are demure, allowing that high-end fabric to whisper its exclusive origin…
And always, always an emphasis on the waistline.
And perhaps the gleam of some real jewelry.
Ladylike plaid coats frame the face with ultra-feminine collars to draw attention to milady’s elegantly fresh, delicately made-up complexion.
Sophisticated Scotties
Sophisticated Ingénues revel in plaids but only when they are slightly “warped” or outsized…
or have been treated to an off-beat color treatment.
Or cut in slightly outlandish ways.
The overarching principle with these gals is to seek out the trendy and eye-catching..
….nothing predictable or standard issue.
Plaid is often an accent, rather than an over-all pattern.
Plaid gloves? Yes, please.
How do you make your plain-ol’ plaid shirt look sophisticated? Take a tip from Audrey! Don’t button it, wrap it!
Charming checks in
Naturally Charming gals adore plaid…
…almost more than any other Star Style.
It speaks of warm firesides, cozy cabins, hard work, fresh fields, and simpler times—and all of those things are in the Natural wheelhouse.
This type only has to wander through L.L. Bean and scoop up her fall wardrobe.
The only caveat for her—be careful to get a nicely fitted shirt, so you don’t look like you snitched it off the fellow in your life.
Her rule of thumb: Can I relax in it?
Plaidly, deeply, passionately
Passionate Beauties know how to make plaid sizzle…
Start tweaking these menswear icons over and around that bombshell body.
Elizabeth Taylor was past master at this, from the time she was a fresh-faced ingénue…
…to her turn as the world’s most outrageously sexy woman.
It’s not just about fit, though…
it’s also about inventive ways to show some skin where the plaid isn’t!
And there’s gotta be a chance to show off those fabulous gams!
Brigadoony Boho
Sensual Bohemians have to subvert the iconography of plaids to get their kicks…
…and make sure the materials are luxe to the extreme, like rustle-y silk taffeta (by the way, taffeta is THE plaid fabric for the holidays).
…or that there’s simply YARDS and YARDS of it.
If they could find a plaid fur, they’d be all over it. Or go the opposite route…and make it ridiculously abbreviated!
A mile-long plaid scarf would be a nice choice for these new-age Isadora Duncans, too. Just keep it casual…nothing too studied.
Tartans Tailored
Smartly Tailored gals LOVE plaid because it’s so graphic!
Wise choices are big-scale tartans with white or red backgrounds or crisply colorful, briskly brief jackets like Stanny’s here…
These snappy colors and patterns add the traditional briskness while cutting the plaid on the bias adds that touch of wit so beloved of this type.
And offers up instant drama…
…and the necessary high contrast…
so admired by these stop-traffic fashionistas.
And if you can add a hat, more power to you.
I‘ve got a new plaid-itude
I could go on…
but, if you’re like me, you’re itching to stop reading and start burrowing in your closet to unearth any scrap of plaid you own and figure out just what you’ll be doing to trot it out next week.
Whether it’s a classic tartan scarf wrapped around your neck, a houndstooth coat of epic proportions or a wildly abstracted plaid wiggle skirt, now’s the time!
From Autumn’s first golden leaf and the evergreen’s snowy boughs; this time of year is plaid’s maddest, most marvelous moment.
If you can’t find plaid gems like these, break out the pincushion and the Singer!
Time’s a wasting, lassie! Get your clan on!
