The best wool clothing supplier is Johnson Woolen Mills in Johnson, Vermont. Not only the real deal for buffalo plaid, but I got some of their wool pants a few years back, and they are amazing for our NH winters. Made at the factory in Vermont, incredible quality. I'm pleased with the vogue for buffalo plaid and I hope now my son won't be too embarrassed to have his Mom visit him in Brooklyn.
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What I love about this "look" is now when I visit New York I no longer feel the need to buy new clothes for the trip. I can just wear my barn clothes, ariat boots, barn jackets, jeans and maybe a lumberjack shirt. The fleece jackets ones are lighter to wear but hay clings to them so the woolrich wool ones are best for the barn work.
I laugh a the prices for these clothes in NYC . I have even been stopped (in NYC!) and asked where I bought my barn jacket. i buy mine at my local tack/feed store and now I look cool in NYC!
I laugh a the prices for these clothes in NYC . I have even been stopped (in NYC!) and asked where I bought my barn jacket. i buy mine at my local tack/feed store and now I look cool in NYC!
2
The plaid obsession that has infected American fashion like a disease shows a terrible lack of imagination, so I think that we're at the point where even the most whacked-out, ugly, hilarious clown gear that appears on couture runways this year will be a relief. It takes more than a dope like some Kardashian queen wearing plaid to make it acceptable.
My dad was buried in his buffalo plaid LL Bean jacket last year. And I don't think anyone saw a trace of irony in it.
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I used to wear my Dad's shirt when I was in high school, and wonder whatever happened to it. He's been gone a long time now, so I got a Pendleton last fall in his memory.... Yes just like his, the men's version that is too long in the sleeve for me. I am so glad this pattern came back.
Come on folks this fabric and clothing has been around for eons. College kids were wearing it in the 1960's trying to be 'working class' and outdoorsy. Now hipsters think it's cool to wear buffalo plaid and LL Bean Hunting shoes/boots. Perhaps we will all get closer to our roots and get off our computers and other electronic devices.
Thanks for the article! Now they're out of style.
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My 17 year-old daughter has been wearing what we call at home "plaid flannels" as her "new fashion" for the past 18 months. She wears them as coats, jackets, robes, shirts, work out attire, dresses, you name it. I buy her some nice ones from trendy stores as gifts, and she continues to go to Good Will and buys ones in the men's department. She says she prefers the Good Will ones, as they are the softest, cool colors, and most comfortable. I tell you these flannels also take up huge amounts of space in her drawers and closet and they are not the easiest to fold and tuck away. I am looking forward to when she is over this trend and I can bag them and give them to Good Will for the next teenager who goes through this trend -- which by the way has been going on for some time, so your fashion article is "dated" already.
1
I have been wearing plaid flannel shirts since around 1989 when I was in 8th grade. I've seen them become popular a la "grunge" fashion and now, I guess. I just like the patterns, the colors and the added warmth here in the northeast. They are perfect on chilly summer nights and as a layer in the winter. She might not outgrow them; just saying.
I read this article with a chuckle as I wear my favorite red, black and blue plaid shirt from J. Crew. When I grabbed it in my closet today, I actually experienced a physical wash of pleasure akin to eating meatloaf. It's a comfort food you wear, instantly bringing me back to film school in the early '80's, where the de-rigueur uniform was a heavy wool buffalo plaid, half consumed coffee cup and cigarette. After wearing a suit yesterday, this was like a plunge into a warm tub of happiness. I can't get that from an oxford.
1
I was a fashion stylist for twenty years and my super big wish is that hipsters will come up with something new like the generations before them have. How ironic that they can't seem to do that!
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This is the best thing I'll read today. Awesome writing. I don't care much about buffalo plaid but the observations about its relation to our culture are gold.
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You're kidding, right?
Just another affectation for the fashionable crowd. In this case, the appearance of being manual work and outdoors savvy. Unfortunately, its usually just appearances. We have no further than to watch what has happened to the C.C. Filson company out here in Seattle. A once venerable icon of very durable and functional clothing, the company is now a caricature of itself. Very glad I purchased their items when I did, because they will endure far longer than the fashion trend illusions implied by their wannabe replacements.
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Yes, some (but not all) of Filson's stuff has gone sort-of fashionable (and the prices are eye-opening if your idea of outdoor stuff is Eddie Bauer) but if you look at the quality...you're not likely to see much of that kind of thing around any more.
I miss the old store.
I miss the old store.
A nice pattern; until I saw it on a Jenner and Rhianna. This guarantees I will never wear it again.
3
...oh, dear.... makes me feel kind of squirmishy to think my closets are now fashionable.... What am i going to do with all this Filson and Orvis and Bean and Pendleton gear, now that I can't wear it when we venture into town??
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I am in construction and I have been a lumberjack. Most of the tech guys I see wearing lumberjack outfits would faint dead away from one day of work in the costume they are wearing. They should carry smelling salts as well.
I am pretty sure the next hipster thing will either an oil-rigger, or deep sea welder. The offices at Google and Apple will look like it's an oil rig, with oily rags left everywhere for no apparent reason.
I am pretty sure the next hipster thing will either an oil-rigger, or deep sea welder. The offices at Google and Apple will look like it's an oil rig, with oily rags left everywhere for no apparent reason.
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The author sounds a little salty. We get it--you probably don't look like the way you look in flannel, Troy. Leave the rest of us out of your cultural Sherman's warpath.
6
In 1982 Jerry Della Femina, the New York ad executive, dismissed the argument that the "logger look" in cigarette ads was intended to appeal to gays: "These companies are located in North Carolina. When they tell you they had no idea, believe me, they had no idea."
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I really can't stand the term 'fashion' or 'fashionable', because what it generally means in the popular lexicon is 'I have no mind of my own and I follow whatever is the latest thing deemed a trend'. These people aren't fashionable. They are sheep. They want to be accepted and/or aligned with a certain group.
It's much more of a compliment when someone says you have great 'style', for that generally points to originality...avoiding trends.
It's much more of a compliment when someone says you have great 'style', for that generally points to originality...avoiding trends.
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And, Avina what is a Buffalo Plaid !! We, down and out here have been wearing flannel plaid shirts near always. And, I am 77 years 'young.' And, it don't got nothing to do with fashion, its function.
The Times is a few days late and a buncha dollars short on this look which peaked around 6 years ago in these parts, I reckon.
2
Ha! All you New Yorkers are posers!
Love, Portland
Love, Portland
3
Ha! You'd better be talking about Portland, Maine and not Portland, Oregon if you're going to start playing the poser card.
2
Pendleton Mills HQ is in our Portland. And there are still loggers in the Cascades, Coast Range and Olympics (although way less than in the 70's and early 80's).
Helen Mary Macgregor: great pattern mixing and fabulous socks!
I never see this plaid without remembering the smell of gun oil on my father's Pheasant hunting only. Western NY in the old days before automatic weapons.
2
I know just what you mean. You can add Central New York! Wow, great memories...
This lumberjack look has spiraled out of control. We live in NYC! Why are grown men pretending to be lumberjacks? Is every day Halloween now? What will they do next, dress as firemen or ghosts?
1
Hey - it's a nice look! I didn't even know it had a particular plaid name!
What was the point of this? I enjoyed the history lesson, but are you just telling us that this is the color and pattern that young urban men wear to appear manly?
Perhaps your point is things like this always existed, but in today's form it is the buffalo plaid shirt? Other than talking about other plaid shirts through the years, what else was a commercialized, wearable form of manliness in the past?
I wish you would have gone a bit deeper into the history, but I can take that from here.
Perhaps your point is things like this always existed, but in today's form it is the buffalo plaid shirt? Other than talking about other plaid shirts through the years, what else was a commercialized, wearable form of manliness in the past?
I wish you would have gone a bit deeper into the history, but I can take that from here.
For those of us who've been wearing "buffalo plaid" shirts and jackets for over half a century and never once thought about making a statement . . . .
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You're comparing the Kardashians to buffalo plaid!? Paul Bunyan is rolling over in his grave.
2
Huh? It's plaid. It's not "in" or "out." It just is.
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I have always liked wearing plaid. Wrinkles are hard to see and every 15 years I am back in style. Red Buffalo plaid is good to wear during the hunting season when walking the dog.
3
I'm right there with you. "Fashion" catches up with me every 15 years or so.
2
"The shirt offers the shelter of an anti-chic, protecting against the assault of novelty." Yet the people described herein want to define chic with it as long as they don't have to get chainsaw bar oil or pheasant blood on themselves.
I got one. It's home made. No name brand. No connection to politics or Hollywood. Above all, no irony.
Three yards of 45in wide cloth from a fabric store cut and sewn by a skilled seamstress who lives near the City of Buffalo and reads about the paparazzi in pretentious fashion articles in the Times.
I got one. It's home made. No name brand. No connection to politics or Hollywood. Above all, no irony.
Three yards of 45in wide cloth from a fabric store cut and sewn by a skilled seamstress who lives near the City of Buffalo and reads about the paparazzi in pretentious fashion articles in the Times.
May be my ignorance, but is the photo illustration by Maurico or Mauricio Alejo?
Excuse me NY Times, the first image shown is not plaid. It is Gingham!
Large Gingham or Buffalo Gingham, but not plaid....
Large Gingham or Buffalo Gingham, but not plaid....
1
What?! no picture of Brando in "On the Waterfront" in his buffalo plaid jacket! Shame on you.
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I can't wait for gingham to come back into fashion!
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It never left.
Buffalo Schmuffalo. Everyone who know anything knows this is, always has been, and always will be a Pennsylvania Tuxedo.
1
Many of my best friends are lumberjacks, and only a few of them are transvestites.
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Do they drink all night and sleep all day? :)
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Well, some of us have thin blood and work on a loading dock(in the city). So, there's that too.
3
Vintage clothing sellers and buyers have been into buffalo plaid for a long, long time. Nice to see the attention on it though. Its a classic in more ways than one.
1
I am the last person who tries to stay in fashion. As a retired old lady I prefer jeans (lined ones in winter). And I had no idea, in the Fall of 2014, that my purchase of a women's Maine Guide Jacket from LLBean would become a hot item in NYCity! I didn't even know the black and red plaid had a name!
However, I love my jacket! It's pretty long. It has wonderful features. I wish it had a hood. But my sheepskin hat that I purchased one summer on sale from Cabellas (don't tell me that's in style too!) is a great warm substitute for a hood. I also have a great pair of Meindl hiking boots from Cabellas. Which I hope also aren't a fashion item - but are the best, most comfortable hiking boots I have ever tried on or used! And to top it all, on cold windy days, when I walk outdoors, a pair of snowboarding pants (I have never been near a snowboard! But I was near a sale...). Please don't make these a fashion item either.
Out here in the Midwest, when the wind blows, which it mostly does, WARMTH is what I want. Especially in old age. And anonymity! Not fashion.
But who knew?
However, I love my jacket! It's pretty long. It has wonderful features. I wish it had a hood. But my sheepskin hat that I purchased one summer on sale from Cabellas (don't tell me that's in style too!) is a great warm substitute for a hood. I also have a great pair of Meindl hiking boots from Cabellas. Which I hope also aren't a fashion item - but are the best, most comfortable hiking boots I have ever tried on or used! And to top it all, on cold windy days, when I walk outdoors, a pair of snowboarding pants (I have never been near a snowboard! But I was near a sale...). Please don't make these a fashion item either.
Out here in the Midwest, when the wind blows, which it mostly does, WARMTH is what I want. Especially in old age. And anonymity! Not fashion.
But who knew?
3
Ah! Reminds me of 1970 I wore a buffalo plaid winter jacket in NYC. It was a style popular for two years.
There should be a rule: This shirt may only be worn by those who have ridden through a herd of Buffalo (Bison). All of the rest of you are pretenders.
Ah, the politics of plaid! Follow this well-written essay by looking into the big picture book "Tartan, Romancing the Plaid" by Jeffrey Banks and Doria de La Chapelle. Follow that with the magisterial history "Tartan" by Jonathan Faiers.
This plaid is known as the "Pennsylvania tuxedo".
http://pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Woolrich.html
http://pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Woolrich.html
1
I've been noticing the red and black plaid shirts and jackets all over the place here in unsophisticated Connecticut!
Forgetting style for a moment- these flannel shirts (after a couple of washes) are the most comfortable ( and warm) thing you could possibly wear to get through a Chicago winter. It annoys me to see them as a fashion item.
3
Always wore it. Always loved it. Hard to find in lady's sizes so nice and big. LOVE IT. It's like comfort food for the body.
Buffalo plaid in particular is hard to pull off **well** even if one is going for kitsch. The vibrant red black pattern can melt the retina.
1
Does this mean my senator, Jon Tester, with his flattop haircut and torn-up Carharts, is a fashion icon?
Google "Jon Tester barn coat" to get an idea.
Google "Jon Tester barn coat" to get an idea.
1
Uhh, grunge? http://www.bustle.com/articles/20343-how-did-plaid-become-popular-a-brie...
Like that is news. Just follow the add twenty years recycle rule.
Like that is news. Just follow the add twenty years recycle rule.
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Before blaze orange, buffalo plaid hats and coats were always worn in the woods during hunting season because of its visibility. It has just joined a long line of hunting cloths for non-hunters - few who affect this style of dress would be much good at gutting out a deer.
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Gutted a few deer myself but would not wear one of my Pendleton shirts because blood is a bear to get our of wool.
"It has just joined a long line of hunting cloths for non-hunters - few who affect this style of dress would be much good at gutting out a deer."
They may not know how to gut a deer, but possibly a pig. It's all part of the beard, tats, bees, artisanal this and that trend...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/fashion/25meat.html
They may not know how to gut a deer, but possibly a pig. It's all part of the beard, tats, bees, artisanal this and that trend...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/fashion/25meat.html
1