A fad for fall plaid

It's not just the youngsters, err should I say hipsters, that are making this pattern famous across Japan. When a fashion trend reaches it's moment in the sun, everyone wants a few of it's rays.

With the cool, crisp air blowing and the foliage that excites us to many a-Kodak moment, plaid is the fashion for fall and it is on every hanger, thrift store and Japanese person in sight.

I often associate plaid with a few fellow Americans. One being the lumberjack. A burly type that cuts raw lamb's meat on a wooden chopping block inside his log cabin on a cold winter night. The fire crackles, his beard itches and the flannel plaid is warming his muscles with each checkered square.

Another plaid partisan you would find more in the eccentric pockets of urban cities. The hipsters don plaid for every occasion, whether it's riding their fixed gears to the art show or behind the counter of a dilettante cafe. Their unwashed, greasy hair lines with a film their unkempt stubble, an assortment of tattoos and piercings, thick rimmed glasses all the way down to their skinny jeans and beat up skate shoes. Plaid to the hipster is a way of saying f u to those who care about fashion. But, then again, if the hipsters have created their own group in an attempt to be group-less, then what is anything they do other than trendy?

For Japanese, plaid is less of a peg for a particular kind of person. It knows no boundaries aside from it's inscribed patchwork. Plaid is ageless and sexless. It is cool to wear popular fashions in Japan, so everyone jumps on this quilted bandwagon. If you were to compliment a Japanese person for their choice in plaid, chances are they will have never heard of the word.