Houndstooth , Prince of Wales

Houndstooth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Houndstooth, houndstooth check or hound's tooth (and similar spellings) is a duotone textile pattern, characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes, often in black and white, although other colours are used.

 Design and history

Houndstooth checks originated in woven wool cloth of the Scottish Lowlands,but are now used in many other materials. The traditional houndstooth check is made with alternating bands of four dark and four light threads in both warp and filling or weft woven in a simple 2:2 twill, two over - two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass.

Glen plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid), also known as Prince of Wales check, is similar to houndstooth, with alternating blocks of 2-on-2 and 4-on-4 colouring. It has an over-check in a bright or contrasting color. The pattern was popularized by Edward VIII when he was the Prince of Wales. The pattern made a frequent appearance on fabrics designed in the 1930s through to the 1970s.

The Australian department store David Jones uses a houndstooth pattern as part of its corporate logo. The branding — a black-on-white houndstooth pattern — is one of the most recognised corporate identities in Australia. A government sponsored panel judged it in 2006 as one of Australia's top ten favourite trade marks. The origin of this motif is due to the store founder's intention not to use the name on its packaging; the store would be so well known that everyone should recognise it simply by this motif.
Houndstooth is the well-recognized pattern on legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's hat. Fans wear the patterned hat and other merchandise with the pattern. However, it is not a part of their official colors.