Mad About Plaid

Wow. Two months since the last post. Time flies when you're having fun grad school classes suck up every ounce of brain capacity not allocated to basic survival measures (you know...like food, shelter, and trips to procure "sanity juice" from BevMo). It's been a busy few months. My DVR also tells me so. The menacing "percent full" keeps increasing. Hubsy starts to get antsy if the percentage goes above 85%. Things begin to get deleted. Important societal dramas such as "I Dream of NENE - The Wedding" lost. (Btw...let the record show that I am putting in my request to come back as NeNe Leakes in my next life. The perfect mix of southern sass and New York brawn - all wrapped up in a divalicious black woman.)  Anyhoo...let's just say I've gotten behind on a few things. Here's one I just need to check off my list...

Dear Project Runway contestants,
 The "modern southern woman" does NOT wear head-to-toe plaid.  (nor does she shop for clothes at Belk, but since you are obviously accepting advertising dollars from whatever source comes your way (Yoplait frozen yogurt challenge. Really?!), I'm just going to overlook this one for now.

I'm not quite sure where this vicious stereotype began, but let's please set the record straight. Plaid = cowboy. Cowboy does NOT = southern woman. I realize that the South is probably not on your "fashion capitals of the world" list of places to see, but a quick Google search of "Garden and Gun" magazine would have at least been a start. We like classic, clean style...and monograms...we monogram EVERYTHING! In a nutshell, I'd have to say the "modern southern woman's" style reflects her roots.  A hint of tradition mixed with a few bold statements...think A-line dress plus metallic cheetah print heel.

There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule: 
 (1) Burberry plaid is ALWAYS sheik.
(2) A checkered plaid button-down can be sharp when paired correctly.
(3) At Alabama tailgating events, you will see southern women sporting generous amounts of houndstooth, while not plaid per se, perhaps its (much lovelier) distant 3rd cousin.
(4) In a brief instance of being caught in a bad "plaid fad" a few years ago, a certain southern girl may have momentarily lost her way and donned a tablecloth-esque number. As you can see from Exhibit A. this was a poor choice and shall forever be filed among the recesses of poor fashion choices alongside stonewashed jeans and floral Laura Ashley rompers.

Let us never speak of this again, k?