Tart up with Tartan

Aren’t us fashion folk funny!  People are fainting from heat stroke out there and applying factor 50 by the bucket load and we fashion fiends are busy thinking ahead towards fall/winter.  Me?  I’m not as dilligent as to start reporting trends as soon as they come off the catwalk.  With my goldfish like memory, it’s better if I remind myself a month or two before the intense for-the-season shopping starts.  Now is about a good a time as any.  So let’s start off with what I predict will be the most churned out trend on the high street – plaid or tartan if you want to be specific.  Let’s just remind ourselves why people are declaring plaid to be hot:

Let’s just say that I have plenty of plaid/tartan experience on my fashion resume, as I have been staying in Edinburgh every summer, practically every year of my life.  Suffice to say, something tartan-y always makes it’s way back down to London in the form of a skirt, a purse, a beret or even shoes!  There exists many a picture of me in some faintly twee tartan outfit looking terribly embarrassed.  High fashion tartan?  That requires a little more work than digging out my tartan-clad childhood wardrobe. 

It would be very easy to veer into Highland costume party mode so choices must be wise.  Trust the high street stores to take a trend by it’s horns and dish it out at high speed.  This H&M dress, i have spotted on other people, pondered about it but have decided that although the shape is sweet as pie, the tartan pattern is a little too Scottish Tourist Board heritage for me (i.e. a little bit generic).  Mango welcomes plaid/tartan every year with a trenchcoat so this comes as no surprise to me.  At least this year, it’s a little more relevant.

Buying a pair of Topshop flats is really as easy as picking up a bunch of bananas.  Concept is simple – shoes on plastic hooks on racks with all sizes there.  These tartan mary janes are the latest addition to Topshop shoe flat racks.  The red ones are again a bit too tartan-y but I quite like the patent edges with the white striped pattern.   

I fare a little better with eBay vintage finds only because of the variety in patterns and styles.  However, I seem to be favouring the babydoll shapes which somehow modernises the tartan/plaid and makes it less like you’re about to go to a Highland Fling ball (remember that episode of Sex & the City where Charlotte gets tartan happy?).  As you can see from the pics, there are also many opportunities to layer away with these dresses too (don’t get me started on the virtues of layering – you’ll hear loads about it from me in days to come….). 

Black and pink plaid pinafore dress // Blue and red plaid jumper dress // White and green plaid empire dress

Below is an eBay find of a different sort altogether.  Japanese manga character cosplay meets traditional Scottish costume.  This dress is quite literally an adult version of the dress I wore when I was 5, with patent T-bar shoes and white crochet tights.  Which might sound very hip and happening but I just don’t think my 22 yr old thick and lengthened-limbed body can take such an ensemble right now.  But hey, if you can work it, be my guest!