Trend Watch: Plaids, Checkers, and Micro-checks

A summer trend born in California heats up for fall

Written by SAM GLASER

As summer becomes a lucid memory, fall fashion traditionally offers an opportunity to stow away summer pieces, retread old outerwear favorites, and experiment with layering new pieces. On the business side fashion trade shows and markets are normally packed with brands competing to unveil the next hot look for the cold seasons ahead.

Brand innovation for fall ’09 was minimal. Designers took already popular plaids and checks, added brighter colors, and shrank the patterns. A surging category of “micro-checks” emerged. Similar to the plaids and checkers from which micro-checks descended, summer’s prevailing trend is just getting started.

It’s not surprising that a trend is born in California. But this past summer, the style of the moment did not gain traction in Los Angeles alone. While Hollywood can single handedly launch a fashion craze, plaid-appeal accelerated even further south. With influence from western Americana heritage, popularized by the action sports cultures in San Diego and Orange County, and certified by the A-list, a fashion movement materialized. (more…)

The Look: Sophisticated Urban

With crossover influence from contemporary menswear, action sports-wear, and nightlife music, “Sophisticated Urban” is born.

Bay Area urbanites have a sense of entitlement for inventing nightlife-oriented catchphrases. Mac Dre was “Thizzin,” because no existing word covered the concept of “popping E while partying hard.” Similarly, Keak Da Sneak and E-40 popularized “going hyphy” to describe dancing in an overstated, fast paced manner. Cal basketballer Rod Benson conceived “boom tho!” – an exclamation of excitement, or the successful act of mating. Through a paradigm-shifting nightclub incident and personal shopping experiences, a revelation on what’s next in men’s nightlife fashion formed, for which no existing term fit. (more…)