Fashion plays with plaid

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012 |
THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
11
style
Fashion plays with plaid
Tartan is stylish again,
emerging from its
clan and Punk past
BY SUZY MENKES
Ever since Queen Victoria made plaid a
part of fashion, draping checked fabrics
over herself and over the furnishing of
the newly acquired Balmoral Castle, the
British royal family has continued to
treat tartan as a fashion extra.
Just days before her pregnancy was
announced, the Duchess of Cambridge
wore the Black Watch tartan fitted coat
designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander
McQueen during a visit to her alma mater. Prince William and his bride are not
only alumni of St. Andrew’s University
in Scotland, they also have the titles of
Earl and Countess of Strathearn. It was
that clan’s check scarf that the former
Kate Middleton wore on the rain-soaked
flotilla for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond
Jubilee celebrations in the summer.
When the Duke of Cambridge was
honored as Knight of the Thistle, the
Duchess carried the folded Strathearn
tartan scarf.
But tartan has had a more checkered
fashion career than just the squares on
which the patterns are founded. Vivienne Westwood commandeered plaid
as a uniform for the Punk era at the end
of the 1970s. And tartan has remained
part of street style and a fabric with an
POOL PHOTO BY ARTHUR EDWARDS
aggressive twist.
For the winter 2012 season, the effect is
more stylish than rakish, with plaid coats
serving their long-held purpose to brighten up a cold-weather wardrobe. Designers often choose tartan for outerwear, but
it also appears as narrow pants, tailored
MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
The model Stella Tennant and Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel, on the
runway at the Métiers d’Art fashion show at Linlithgow Palace in Scotland.
In Scotland, Chanel pays
homage to knitwear legacy
CHANEL, FROM PAGE 10
cluded a cloth thistle in the hair or a double C’s leather flask bag (handy for carrying whisky or Chanel No. 5.).
‘‘They let me do anything I want,’’
said Mr. Lagerfeld, perched over a hefty
wooden dinner table carved in Scotland
for the event. He was referring to his
‘‘bosses,’’ the Wertheimer brothers, the
owners of Chanel, for whom no dream of
their designer seems too much — including staging a show in a roofless palace in
the frozen heart of a Scottish winter.
Yet behind the show and its scattering
of celebrities — including the model
Stella Tennant, looking more regal with
CHANEL
SUZY MENKES/IHT
From top, Coco Chanel fishing at Lochmore, Scotland, in 1928; a worker at Barrie Knitwear making a Chanel cardigan;
reels of cashmere.
every outfit — was a serious purpose: to
underline the Scottish skills that Chanel
has set out to save.
If Coco Chanel, in the fashion world,
‘‘owns’’ the tweed jacket, the soul of the
woven woolen fabric can be found beside the River Tweed, where the mix of
soft water and skilful hands created the
material that has been a staple of
Chanel since the 1920s.
Knitwear, the second most important
category after jackets, according to
Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel
fashion, is so vital to the couture house
that it bought in October the Barrie
Knitwear company.
Last week, the Coco two-tone
cashmere cardigans were being
stitched, cut and shaped by handworkers — as they have been for the past 25
years. Under threat from its parent
company Dawson International, which
was mired in pension debts, the factory
was faced with closure or a buyout by
Chinese factories looking for specialized knitwear equipment.
Now Barrie, in its austere home in undulating hills speckled with the sheep
that provide the raw material, is part of
Chanel’s ‘‘Paraffection’’ or ‘‘out of love’’
subsidiary, which supports its artisans.
‘‘It’s a great opportunity for us — and
we know we make the best with a skilled
work force and a focus on quality,’’ said
Jim Carrie, Barrie’s managing director.
Although Chanel does not discuss it, the
knitwear factory also makes goods for
other luxury brands and, with the closure of Ballantyne and Pringle mills, is
fast becoming the only supplier in the
small town of Hawick.
‘‘It’s a balance between modern and
traditional methods — but we don’t always believe that simple is best,’’ said
Clive Brown, Barrie’s commercial director, as he watched a worker pick up her
scissors and slice a neckline through the
knitting.
If Barrie’s role is to create the Chanel
products that — after ultra-strict quality
control — are sent to stores across the
world, Mr. Lagerfeld’s focus is to create
magic out of something as apparently
banal as a sweater and a pair of shorts.
Maybe it is Mr. Lagerfeld’s German
roots that have given him intuitive understanding of cold climate clothes that
seemed genuinely pitched as winter
wear, rather than urban chic. There was
poetry in every piece from the raw edges
of a chiffon sleeved blouse to the green of
Loch waters for a leather jacket.
Who but Mr. Lagerfeld could have
imagined Chanel as a Scottish superstar.
jackets and, in these days of digital
prints, as a mix of geometric squares
overlaid for a visually dramatic effect.
Queen Victoria might well have
twirled round the Balmoral ballroom in
a tartan gown. And that initiative has
been followed by designers who are us-
POOL PHOTO BY MATT DUNHAM
CATWALKING.COM/CHRIS MOORE; NET-A-PORTER (BAG, SHOES)
ing the print of plaid on fabrics not associated with the usual weave.
New, too, are clash-of-the-tartans accessories, with the shoe supremo Christian Louboutin producing plaid platform
soles, bold boots and purses similar in
design to the Scottish sporran.
From left, the Duchess of Cambridge (also
known as the Countess of Strathearn) in a
Black Watch Alexander McQueen coat and
wearing the clan’s scarf. Clockwise from
above, outfits by Vivienne Westwood Red
Label, Donna Karan and Michael Kors;
bag and pumps by Christian Louboutin.