Check fashion

Origins

At the origin of check fashion there is the traditional Scottish garment, the kilt. It is a skirt, made with a wool fabric called tartan, in which striped motifs intersect to form squares. Although the most famous is the green and blue tartan, in Scotland there are more than 5,000 variations, and each represents a family of the Scottish aristocracy, the so-called clans.

Gallery: all tartan, from accessories to clothes

In the 1970s, paintings made their appearance in London, with the punk movement. The girls wear red and black mini-skirts-kilts along with ripped leggings. Dressing the legendary group of the Sex Pistols, designer Vivienne Westwood definitively links paintings to punk fashion.

In-depth study: the punk style, origins and developments from the 1970s to today

Since then, designers have been enthusiastic about this trend, which has quickly become a cult, with frequent seasonal returns. All the fashion houses, sooner or later, end up proposing checkered creations.

Nowadays, the success of checked fashion is renewed by the stars. Mary Kate Olsen loves to wear long tartan shirts in XXL size over slim or simply over opaque tights. In keeping with her style, model Agyness Deyn wears the paintings in an original way, while actress Kate Bosworth associates the tartan shirt with high-waisted trousers. Kirsten Dunst wears the same type of shirt with shorts, and it could go on forever, because the stars are passionate about this trend.

How to wear paintings

Advice for your morphology

- If you are curvy, wear thin checks, which will balance the curves and make your figure more homogeneous. For you, the cult garment is the checked shirt.

- If you are tall and thin, check pants will add volume to your silhouette and add a lot of charisma to your look.

- If you are petite, focus everything on the upper part: wear a flared jacket and avoid pants or tartan boots.

Body expert: find out how to dress according to your shape

What look to associate the paintings with?

- Rock look: wear very tight leather pants, with a wide red and black shirt and a pair of heeled boots.

- British look: to look like an English schoolgirl, wear a mini-skirt-kilt with a blue blazer and use a headband to hold her hair.

- Hippy look: if you want to be hippy and trendy, choose an orange and green long shirt, to be combined with gray leggings and ankle boots without heels or moccasins.

- Chic look: if you prefer the chic and urban style, wear a plaid skirt, a buckskin jacket and boots.

Star style: the preppy look of celebrities

Mistakes to avoid

- Large paintings get fat: on the curves, the paintings become wider and emphasize the horizontal dimension of the body. If you are not skinny, avoid tartan pants.

- Do not overlap the checks: do not mix stripes and checks, although Chanel does. It's better to have just one good quality checked garment than a total look, which would be too much!