Davenport

Everyone has an idea about plaid – it’s undeniably classy but also associated with the smoke-filled rooms of a gentleman’s club in Old England or the dimly lit office of a private eye. Although today many people assume that “plaid” refers to the fabric, it in fact references the criss-crossing pattern achieved by weaving together different coloured materials.

Most closely associated with the tartans belonging to the clans of the Scottish Highlands (who gave us the term “pledd”), plaid material has actually been unearthed in the Central Asian tombs of Qizilchoqa that date back to 1500 BC! American textile archæologist Elizabeth Barber discovered the well-dressed mummies at Ürümchi, adding thousands of years of history to this already historic pattern. Since Barber’s discovery, one can trace the proliferation of plaid to the early Celt tartans, the Victorian Age and even to 20th-century punks.

The patterns shown on our Mad for Plaid covers come from silk fabric swatches collected in France in the 1800s, but they look as though they could have come from last year’s runway collection by Vivienne Westwood or Louis Vuitton.

No matter the context, the connotation of a plaid ascot belonging to a classy elder statesman remains, and so we’ve chosen iconic Old English names to represent our four Mad for Plaid covers. The rather unusual surname Davenport seemed the perfect choice to title our unexpected colour combination of rich blues, greens and a little pop of shimmering gold.

From punk to prep and tastefully classic to terminally crass, plaid has always been a pattern that crosses lines. This pattern’s rich history in the textile legacies of regions around the world proves it is a pattern that transcends time and culture. It truly is a plaid, plaid world.