Plaid never goes out of style

What do Target, Gap, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Lucky Brand, Estee Lauder, DKNY, Armani Exchange, Lancome, Michael Kors, Ann Taylor, White House/Black Market, L’Oreal, Loft and Gucci have in common? Advertisements from those companies occupy the first 33 pages of the September issue of Glamour. It is a good thing too since the magazine featuring a pony-tailed, leopard-print-wearing Jennifer Lopez on the cover clocks in at a hefty 422 pages, a fact the publisher notes on the cover is the largest issue in 20 years. So much for the demise of print publications.

Target is pitching something called “Plaiditude” and notes that it offers “plaid for everybody at a price that’s nicely in check.” To illustrate the inclusive nature of plaid, the ad features a middle-aged guy complete with graying sideburns who looks like he could have come straight from a Viagra photo shoot, a small Asian child, an ethnically ambiguous brown girl, a black dude, scruffy white boy and four stylishly unique women, all of whom are smiling as they walk abreast down Main Street U.S.A., which of course is paved in plaid.

Target is wise to promote itself as a destination for plaid as there is a place in every wardrobe for the distinctive pattern, especially as temperatures begin to drop this fall.