Plaid Men

Target has saturated the TV airwaves with ads featuring handsome guys decked out in plaid shirts.  Red & blue, grey & yellow, brown & white, green & purple--name your favorite color combo and it‘s available in plaid.  For many, plaid shirts are a vivid reminder of the early 1990s grunge scene, but they have been standard issue for lumberjacks, carpenters, gardeners, and granddads for generations.  Plaid screams "tradition" and this season we’re seeing more traditional casual and dress attire for men and women. 

Plaid shirts connote "real" men.  Not the “Home Improvement” buffoons, but guys more like Norm Abram, master carpenter on PBS’s perennial, “This Old House.”  A man wearing a plaid shirt implies a master of tools, art, music and nature.  He’s an angst-ridden guy who writes fretful songs, knows how to use a reciprocating saw, and will help you retile your bathroom.  He can manicure the boxwood, select and plant azaleas, tame crabgrass and move boulders.  He will calm the wild beasts, including your twitchy Cockapoo or sweet, but soggy-mouthed, Newfoundland. 

I usually keep a couple of plaid flannel shirts on hand during the winter.  My favorite is a old Gap chamois-soft turquoise & navy blue which has withstood countless washings and is really cozy on a chilly day.  If you need to restock your supply you can find them in a broad range of prices and stores.  The Gap has a $49.50 model, there is also Rag & Bone for $220, Diesel for $120, Ralph Lauren for $195, and a  wool/cashmere manning plaid from Bergdorf Goodman for $725.  (I think I’d buy a couple of coats with that cash.)