Eddie Veder on stage
Eddie Veder on stage

LONDON, Feb 24, 2013/ — It originated from the Highlands, and during that era, the plaid pattern is as vital as the clan it represents. When America was discovered, the Scots who immigrated brought their tartan with them.

Crossing the pond and a hundred years later, the tartan became the plaid and was reborn as the favorite pattern of lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest and cowboys from the Canadian Rockies all the way to the American Midwest.

Considered a classic men’s shirt for at least 200 years, the plaid shirt always surprises when it is “rediscovered” by a new generation.

In 1967, when hard rocker and heavy metal musician Meatloaf hit the airwaves wearing a plaid shirt, the flower children made it a part of their wardrobe. During the 1980s, with Seattle sound and alternative rock making inroads in pop culture, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam were usually photographed wearing plaid.

And with Kurt Cobain being raised to cult hero status after his death, high street designers from Hedi Slimane to Marc Jacobs took on the mantle for plaid.

Here we are on the 21st century and roughly 800 years later when the “Falkirk” tartan from Stirlingshire, Scotland was believed to have been made, popular culture’s fascination with the plaid pattern remains.

Case in point, superdry shirts which offer brushed cotton lumberjack shirts, stripe or check shirt designs are favorites among the Millennials.

[MARI DAVIS]

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