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Sept 29th, 2016, by Chris Boreham

Every season both we and our clients face a dilemma with the ever presents in their collections; checks.Knowing in which direction to take each season’s offer, appears to be something unique to each brand we work with. It is almost an inevitability that the staple of warp and weft colour mixes, will cause a great deal of debate and a frantic rush to sampling.That any one individual check design can end up being such an emotive creation is a strange thing. However, like most things presented into a culture and a subjective viewpoint, the fabric weight and colour nuances, plus the order and layout of the threads, can result in many different finished articles, and some checks can come to define, or become identifiable with particular brands.

Burberry is a great example and would probably be the most easily identifiable and brand specific check across all its guises of size and texture. Whether as a statement or a simple Macintosh liner, Burberry is incredibly distinctive.

Equally, Ben Sherman shirts of a certain era can be associated to genres and lifestyles, as can a brand like Fred Perry, and whilst both brands may appeal to a similar customer, that customer could most likely distinguish the brand by the check.

Recently the case could be argued that brands such and Abercrombie & Fitch and Superdry helped define their brands through their interpretations of what the look of a check meant to them and their target customer. Establishment names, such as Aquascutum or Thomas Pink also have their clear identities and messages.

Of course it is not only the look of a check that gives a garment its personality, it is also the garments design. That a certain check would work on a lumberjack style shirt and not on a western style shirt due to slight variation in pocket design or yoke shape appears and oddity, but it’s a fact.

Similarly, a G-Star shirt with its cleaner lines and sharper cut would look different to a shirt from Dickies in a similar check. Just as varying the same notes, rhythm and instruments in music results in a different tune, so does playing with all the elements of a simple check.

And then what of touch and handle?  Brushed? Crisp? Dry? Creamy? Stiff? Drapey?

The check it appears is a moving feast, ever evolving and progressing with the times, but somehow always cool and relevant, intertwining itself with music and arts, maybe even with the fabric of life?