What Is Houndstooth?

Where does houndstooth come from?

Nobody knows who first wove houndstooth: the effect is more than 2,000 years old, far older than the popular story of its invention by 19th-century Scottish shepherds.

Much older evidence lies outside Scotland. The Swedish History Museum describes the Gerum cloak, found by peat cutters on Gerumsberget in Västergötland in 1920, as woven in a houndstooth pattern from undyed brown and white wool. It dates the cloak to 360–100 BC.

What Scotland does document is shepherd’s check, a black-and-white check cloth first worn by shepherds as plaids (long shawls or blankets). Scots also called it shepherd tartan. The Scottish National Dictionary’s earliest quotation for the cloth is “shepherd tartan trowsers” in the Illustrated London News in 1851. An 1869 account describes makers who “began the trade” with shepherd’s plaids and “shepherd check” trouserings.

A 1962 Aberdeen newspaper quoted by the same dictionary credits Sir Walter Scott with making the cloth fashionable for gentlemen’s trousers. Heriot-Watt University’s textile collection calls it legend that Scott launched the industry by wearing trousers of the cloth in London in the 1820s. It does record that black-and-white checked plaids worn by shepherds in the Borders hills inspired the region’s tweed, and that the original design evolved into the District Checks used as estate uniforms.

None of the dictionary’s quotations uses the word houndstooth. The fair reading is that houndstooth and shepherd’s check belong to the same family of two-colour checks, and that any exact “first houndstooth” date is unproven.

How is houndstooth made: woven or printed?

Houndstooth began as a woven pattern, and printed versions came later: the woven figure appears when a twill is made with yarns in alternating blocks of dark and light threads in both the warp and the weft, for example four and four in a 2/2 twill.

The warp is the set of lengthwise threads on the loom; the weft is the thread woven across it. In a 2/2 twill, each weft thread passes over two warp threads and under two, and each new row shifts one thread along. That step makes the diagonal line of every twill. Combined with a four-and-four colour order, it breaks each colour block into teeth. One full repeat is eight threads each way.

The construction is set out in a 2012 geometric study of the pattern by Loe Feijs of Eindhoven University of Technology. He treats houndstooth as a family of sizes and explains why weaving matters for quality. The yarns are dyed before weaving, so the colour runs through the cloth. Printed patterns are more vulnerable to wear and can fade after washing, and printing is often one-sided. Like other checks, the pattern can also be knitted into a fabric.

Scale changes the weave as well as the size. Feijs notes that weaving very large versions the same way is impractical, because long loops of yarn make the cloth fragile; they need more elaborate weaving or, often, printing.

How to tell a well-made houndstooth

• Count the threads. Hold a magnifying glass to the edge of one tooth. On a woven houndstooth every outline follows the yarns, and each block is a whole number of threads: four dark and four light each way in the 2/2 twill version. An outline that cuts across the threads has been printed.
• Turn it over. Because the colour is in the yarns, a woven houndstooth shows its pattern on the back too. Printing is often one-sided, so a pale or blank reverse points to a print.
• Check the grain. A printed check should line up with the lengthwise and crosswise yarns. Oregon State University’s extension guide warns that if it does not, the garment will not be satisfactory.
• Look at the seams. In a well-made garment the pattern matches at the centre front and centre back, the side seams, the centre back of the collar, where the sleeve meets the front at the lower front armhole, and across pockets and flaps unless they are cut on the bias. The same guide says orderly repetition and perfect matching distinguish quality garments, and that the amount of matching relates to the price.
• Check big teeth for floats. On an oversized woven houndstooth, look over both faces for long, loose loops of yarn (floats). Feijs notes that long thread loops make the fabric fragile.

What are the variations of houndstooth?

Houndstooth varies in scale and colour, and the same check goes by several names: puppytooth is the smallest form; dogtooth, dogstooth check and pied-de-poule are other names; and oversized and colour versions keep the toothed figure.

Oregon State University’s guide lists gingham beside houndstooth as a woven check design; gingham keeps plain square blocks, while the twill in houndstooth notches them into teeth. Glen plaid and tartan are separate checks, and the wider family is covered under chequered patterns.

How do you wear houndstooth?

Wear houndstooth by choosing a scale that suits the distance it will be seen from, then keeping what surrounds it plain or clearly different in scale.

• Test the scale. Stand two or three metres from a mirror. If the teeth blur into texture, treat the piece like a plain colour. If they stay graphic, let it be the only pattern you wear.
• Take colours from the yarns. With black-and-white houndstooth, wear black, white, charcoal or grey.
• Mix patterns by scale. Pair a small houndstooth with a wide stripe or a large check rather than with a pattern of the same size.
• Start with tailoring. A houndstooth blazer, coat or pencil skirt shows the cloth in large, flat panels, so check the centre back and side seams first.
• Try it small. A scarf or necktie is the easiest way in. A woven wool version carries its pattern through the cloth; a printed silk one may show it on the face only.
• Ask for matching. In bespoke tailoring, ask how the check will be matched at the front edges, collar and pockets.