Houndstooth is apattern of alternating light and darkchecks used on fabric. It is also known ashounds tooth check,hound's tooth (and similar spellings),dogstooth,dogtooth ordog's tooth. Theduotone pattern is characterized by atessellation of light and dark solid checks alternating with light-and-dark diagonally-striped checks—similar in pattern toginghamplaid but with diagonally-striped squares in place of gingham's blended-tone squares. Traditionally, houndstooth uses black and white, although other contrasting colour combinations may be used.
The oldest Bronze Age houndstooth textiles found so far are from the Hallstatt Celtic Salt Mine, Austria, 1500–1200 BC.[1] One of the best known early occurrences of houndstooth is theGerum Cloak,[2] a garment uncovered in a Swedish peat bog, dated to between 360 and 100 BC.[3] Contemporary houndstooth checks may have originated as apattern in woventweed cloth from theScottish Lowlands,[4] but are now used in many otherwoven fabrics aside from wool. The traditional houndstooth check is made with alternating bands of four dark and four light threads in bothwarp andweft/filling woven in a simple2:2 twill, two over/two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass. In an early reference to houndstooth,De Pinna, aNew York City–based men's and women's high-end clothier founded in 1885, included houndstooth checks along with gun-club checks, and Scotch plaids as part of its 1933 spring men's suits collection.[5] The actual termhoundstooth for the pattern is not recorded before 1936.[6]
Oversized houndstooth patterns were also employed prominently atAlexander McQueen's Fall 2009 Collection, entitledHorn of Plenty.[7] The patterns were a reference toChristian Dior's signature tweed suits.[8]
Houndstooth patterns, especially black-and-white houndstooth, have long been associated regionally with theUniversity of Alabama (UA). This is because the longtime UA football coachBear Bryant often (though not exclusively) wore black-and-white houndstoothfedoras.[9] The university has attempted to assert a trademark for houndstooth, especially when used in conjunction with other symbols of the school and itsfootball team, a legal strategy that has been largely unsuccessful.[10][11]
The Australian department storeDavid Jones' 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-10 favourite trademarks.[12] The iconic design was the result of a 1967 rebranding exercise by chairman Charles Lloyd Jones, Jr., who wished that the store would be so well known by the design as to not require the use of the name on the packing. It was allegedly inspired by the houndstooth design on aMiss Dior perfume bottle belonging to his mother, Hannah Jones.[13] On 25 July 2016, David Jones introduced a new logo, with a revised font style, and removed references to the houndstooth online.
A smaller-scale version of the pattern can be referred to aspuppytooth.[14]
Ricky, a main character in the Canadian comedy seriesTrailer Park Boys is frequently seen wearing a houndstooth button-up shirt. It has become an unofficial branding element for the series, with different merchandise featuring the pattern.[citation needed]
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)The clothes were, for the most part, high-drama satires of twentieth-century landmark fashion: parodies of Christian Dior houndstooth New Look and Chanel tweed suits [...]
