Brogger's Quarterly: 'Tis The Season

Winter is the season where you see certain patterns worn more than any other time of the year. It's not to say you can't wear these on a normal basis year-round, you definitely can. For some reason, certain patterns are more appropriate for the holiday season. I love it.

The colors of red, green, and everything in between really inspires the holiday spirit for me, and I figured I'd introduce the readers to some popular winter patterns and fabric as well as clarify some common terms.

What's the difference between plaid, flannel, and tartan? The answer, tips, and more - after the break.

Plaid VS Flannel VS Tartan

Can you tell the difference? Well, you shouldn't be able to, and I know I can't. Why?

The terms seem to be interchangeable due to etymology, pop-culture, and definition. Let's clear this up.

Here's a fabric/pattern lesson:

Plaid refers to the cloth itself, not the fabric. It's the actual piece of cloth you wear. The pattern just happens to be in the familiar check pattern because it's originally a Scottish term. A "full plaid" refers to the piece of cloth wrapped around the shoulder and fastened in front and worn with a kilt (bagpipes included).

Flannel is a soft woven fabric, spun from wool or cotton. We see it as a check pattern the most because it was made famous in the 90's by rock music. It was a hit with grunge and alternative rock musicians and listeners. Smells like teen spirit, right?

Tartan is the actual term used to refer to the criss-cross pattern you see in most plaid and flannel. It's woven horizontally and vertically with multiple colors. Tartan is most associated with Scotland because kilts usually use the pattern, but through some American English translation of tartan, most of us just call it plaid. So the term "plaid shirt" is correct in most cases because the shirt is made out of cloth, but if you wanted to describe the pattern tartan is more accurate. Meh, whatever.

So, technically, the picture above could be plaid or flannel, but they all have a tartan pattern.

Other Patterns

Argyle is a holiday favorite. To the eyes' illusion, it looks like a bunch of diamonds. If you tilt your head, you can actually see it's just a diagonal checkerboard.

Personally I like the size of the argyle you see the on the left. Sometimes I see patterns that are too small (so many diamonds) that it's too busy or too large (one or two huge diamonds) that look gaudy.

Argyle sweaters and vests are sure-shot winner.


Fair Isle is a little more obscure. You might have seen this eclectic design before, but not really know what to think of it. It seems a little too busy and random in the designs at first glance.

The Fair Isle design originates from... Fair Isle, a tiny island north of Scotland. Wah-wah-weh-wah!

It describes a technique in which you alternate weaving different colors together. Designs tend to repeat themselves in different lines down the pattern.

While it may look busy, it has an old-world traditional feeling to it. Kinda like how cardigans used to be grandpa-styled and now they're super fit-cut and cool for hip kids, Fair Isle designs can also be "cool" and "with it" okay?

Left to right: mini-gingham, gingham, tattersall

Gingham originally was woven as a stripe pattern, but since the English started making it, it's been woven into a check pattern. Something about those United Kingdom countries making lots of check patterns...

Tattersall is a check pattern of horizontal and vertical stripes of two colors on a lighter background. Makes for a good spring shirt too.


You can differentiate gingham and tartan because the check pattern of gingham is just around two or three colors. Tartan is multi-color with interweaving horizontal and vertical layer of color. See the difference even though the color scheme is similar?

How to pull it off

Keep it simple. Since wearing one of these patterns is already a statement in itself, keep your other clothes fairly simple and solid colored. We don't want to mix all these patterns together.

It's about the contrast. Pair a patterned shirt with jeans and a solid color scarf for a simple classic look. What if you only have solid color clothes? No problem, pick yourself a patterned scarf. That burst of color among your solid clothes will stand out.

Oh, and there's no reason why this all doesn't look good on women either.

Happy Thanksgiving, and cheers.