Morning:
5°c
Ah, the joy of checks. The check shirt is a staple of every man's wardrobe, for those days when we need to free ourselves from the boredom of block colours, or the formality of stripes. The most basic, versatile and inoffensive example is the fine gingham (just about any colour works) but bolder versions in plaid and tartan are perennially fashionable.
Back in my youth, blue and red, heavy-check tartan flannel shirts were popularised by a Scottish band called Big Country. The shirts fitted in with a post-New Romantic anti-fashion thing because you could buy them dirt cheap in Millets, roll up the sleeves and try to look butch. We called them lumberjack shirts. Big Country's USP, by the way, was to make guitars sound like bagpipes. The shirts, it's fair to say, have proved more enduring.
So, anyway, check shirts are still out there and working hard. Kills guitarist Jamie Hince used his red-grey medium check to liven up an otherwise tame recent outfit of jeans, blue jacket and what looks suspiciously like a vest. Conversely, music producer Pharell Williams used an understated blue number on the Cannes red carpet to tone down his frankly eye-aching red gilet and crayon-scribbled moon boots. Music supremo Mark Ronson's asymmetrical pink-and-blue version went brilliantly with his black drainpipes and electric blue jacket on a recent visit to the May Fair Hotel. But then he could wear a three-week-old cat carcass on his head and still look good.
When it comes to suits and jackets checks can look elegantly dressy (think of the Duke of Windsor in houndstooth) or breezily relaxed. Magazine editor Jefferson Hack achieved the latter at the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation Gala, pairing a skinny bow tie and a paisley waistcoat with a slim-fit fine-check jacket. Note to comedian Leigh Francis's Avid Merrion, though: having the same pattern on your shirt and jacket makes you look like an optical illusion. The kind that causes dizziness and nausea.
That's the point about checks. A little goes a long way. In the autumn/winter menswear collections Vivienne Westwood's bold tartans are best tamed by trousers in a block colour, while Etro's dark, small-block tartan works on a suit because it's understated. It reminds me a bit of the Black Watch kilt. Come to think of it, if the Black Watch ever launched its own fashion line, I bet men would buy it. Great name.
Junya Watanable's three-quarter-length belted brown coat looks like a subtle homage to Burberry check but I can't say I like the heavy, dark checks Paul Smith is using this year in place of his trademark stripes. Like I say, moderation is the key in checks, in terms of size, colour and coverage. It's not hip to be too square.
