I learned a trick or two from my rag-picking days in the mid 1990s, one of them being that all plaids are not created equal.
When corporate design teams (the likes of Ralph Lauren, J. Crew, Abercrombie, Gap, etc) were browsing my vintage racks at the Rosebowl, I quickly noticed that some plaid shirts were definitely getting more attention than others…
An obviously initial divider is between woven and printed plaids, then you got your run-of-the-mill brushed cotton flannels, commercial wool checks and popular traditional patterns, notorious Scottish tartans that long-ago crossed over to fashion island, Pendleton classics, buffalo plaids, shadow plaids, patterned tweeds, … Once in a while, a unicorn shows up, an unusual pattern/color combo that everyone goes nuts about.
And when your main source of income relies on the bacon you bring home from your local flea market only held once a month, one tends to start paying attention to both obvious and subtle differences between vintage plaid shirts!
Fast-forward to 2024 Mister Freedom®…
We regularly reach out to our friends at Sugarcane Co to mill a special check pattern for us, always inspired by the fabric of an unusual vintage specimen. Thanks to the long-standing textile expertise of Toyo’s Japan team — scrutinizing yarn hues with color wheels and analyzing fiber content with microscopic precision — , we have released a few “unicorn” plaids in our mfsc past. Opting for a 100% cotton yarn content when the original is 100% wool is often a design choice related to our roots in Southern California and local climate.
The Secoya shirt in “McG plaid” or “Winter King plaid” — and, notably, the upcoming eye-pleasing FW2024 “Secoya Tartan”— the Dude Rancher in “Joan plaid” and “Indigo-covert plaid”, the Scrambler jacket in “Tartan Check”, the lining of our Dune Buggy, …, all come to mind.
Sometime in 2023, while out-and-about Downtown LA, CA., hunting for New Old Stock fabrics for FW2024 — under the supervision and guidance of MF® official sniffer #TheJoeGreene —, the Joe sniffed out a very interesting woolen shadow plaid, in the ocean of textiles of an overstocked jobber warehouse. The bonus was that there was enough yardage to justify a small limited production. Sold!
From what intel I could gather, that fabric was milled in India, painstakingly-woven on traditional antiquated powerloom machines. It features a fancy monogramed selvedge tape with the mill’s brand — “Premium Woollens” — an apparently now-defunct maker.
The British textile industry has a long history of weaving/printing traditional textiles in its old Empire’s colonies — see Madras fabric legacy briefly discussed here — so it is no surprise that India’s textile industry would still expertly-produce a wide range of Old Albion’s classic woolen tweeds today.
From the ombre plaid vibe, that check pattern seems to fall under the “Shadow Plaid” family, with an attractive gradient heathered combination of black/grey/blue/ivory colored yarns. The fabric is a woolen blend, exact fiber content unknown.
We opted for the Mister Freedom® RANGER Shirt pattern for this fabric score, a visual nod to the Beach Boys’ 1962 Pendleton-sponsored outfits (more here), and 60s SoCal surf culture in general. A bit of a stylistic stretch since our RANGER Shirt pattern conveys more of a 1930s-40s vibe, but, as you know, we always like to take a bit of liberty in the design process, and don’t do replicas.
This shirt is a fairly versatile and casual garment, easily wearable tucked or untucked, as an overshirt or just over a long-sleeve T-Shirt, paired with traditional denim jeans, 60s-style “wheat” jeans, chinos styles, etc…
The Mister Freedom® RANGER Shirt NOS “Selvedge Woolen Plaid” edition is designed and made in California, CA., in collaboration with Sugar Cane Co. Cut from NOS fabric milled in India.
