For the most part, I'm more than happy to leave all commentary on fashion to my better half, who maintains an excellent (and more frequently updated) blog for her consignment store, The Closet. As a visual person however, every now and then I'll pick up on a theme in product or fashion design, and start to see it everywhere.
My first exposure to houndstooth was a You Must Create jacket that I picked up this past spring. I had never really paid any attention to the fabric before, but the pixel pattern nature of it immediately grabbed my interest, and I started noticing it on the people around me.
I'm not sure when exaggerating the size of the pattern became cool, but I seem to recall first noticing it on someone's jacket around the same time I got mine. It seemed like a clever idea, increasing the size of a pattern far beyond its normal state. This fall I've seen the same usage on nearly anything you could imagine, primarily coats, but also skirts, bags, shoes and even umbrellas.
Houndstooth in its standard size is a subtle texture, the product of a particular method for weaving fibers. Once Exaggerated it becomes a brand of its own, a simple aesthetic trick with no relation to how it was physically created. Multiplied across a large number of items worn by a large number of people, the trick is exposed and the trend becomes dated. I will happily enjoy my jacket and its time-tested pattern for years to come, but I imagine the enlarged houndstooth trend will find itself very short lived.
My first exposure to houndstooth was a You Must Create jacket that I picked up this past spring. I had never really paid any attention to the fabric before, but the pixel pattern nature of it immediately grabbed my interest, and I started noticing it on the people around me.
I'm not sure when exaggerating the size of the pattern became cool, but I seem to recall first noticing it on someone's jacket around the same time I got mine. It seemed like a clever idea, increasing the size of a pattern far beyond its normal state. This fall I've seen the same usage on nearly anything you could imagine, primarily coats, but also skirts, bags, shoes and even umbrellas.
Houndstooth in its standard size is a subtle texture, the product of a particular method for weaving fibers. Once Exaggerated it becomes a brand of its own, a simple aesthetic trick with no relation to how it was physically created. Multiplied across a large number of items worn by a large number of people, the trick is exposed and the trend becomes dated. I will happily enjoy my jacket and its time-tested pattern for years to come, but I imagine the enlarged houndstooth trend will find itself very short lived.
