Check Yourself
Kelli Conway • 07/31/2018
Photo: Garance Dore
Apart from the long weekends, the late sunsets, and blissfully forgetting what a jacket is, summer wins out as our favorite season for its approach to fashion. Where traditional fashion seasons (spring and fall) can lay claim to new trends, new patterns, and new rules, the sandwiched season of summer always sees a handful of seasonal classics repeat, while still reinventing themselves. Undergoing the biggest reinvention of them all? Gingham.
From its humble beginnings as a popular choice for homestead prairie dresses to the form-fitting pedal pushers of the ’60s, gingham has withstood the tides of changing trends. Its original inception as a print saved for ultra-feminine wears has made way for more modern approaches—so instead of sweetheart necklines and demure fit-and-flare silhouettes, you'll find deconstruction, cropped hems, and plenty of asymmetry. Still, we think Brigitte Bardot would approve.
So, forget the association with countryside picnics and preppy exes. Today's gingham, when paired with the right pieces, has that perfectly French je ne sais quoi (and effortlessly cool) feel...