History and evolution of the pied-de-poule And a shopping guide with the best items for the cold seasons

Houndstooth, pied-de-poule and shepherd's check. Those three names have more than one thing in common, but far from the animal world their main connection is the woven fabric decorated by black & white broken checks named à la francaise “pied-de-poule”, after its chicken’s feet resembling shape. The bicolor pattern appears seasonally in shop windows and around town both in black and white and colorful variations with a strong optical effect, and in a Sex and the City power trip we couldn’t help but wonder… where does it come from?

The origins of the pattern

The pied-de-poule or houndstooth pattern was born between 360 and 100AC. It belongs to the traditional Scottish Tartan Fabrics Family, and was mainly diffused in the Scottish Lowland, near the Anglosaxon border, that’s why its also called Border Tartan. As one of the more ancient tartan types, houndstooth was probably adopted by those clan-fights-free individuals and originally made on a woven wool cloth, weaving a fair sheep wool for the lighter checks and a darker wool for the contrasting black ones, usually from a naturally tinted wool weaving or simply from a black sheep. According to “The Costume of Scotland” by John Telfer Dunbar is was worn by Scottish shepherd’s with a mimetic and protective aim, because from a distance the pattern’s colors melt together making the figure appear afar.

But after many centuries houndstooth lost its mimetic and utilitarian aim and started to be acquired by high class people looking for a new look to refresh their image, first becoming popular on skirts and scarves to be then acquired by interior homeware too.