Last summer I saw houndstooth everywhere. Or I thought it was everywhere, but how would I know? Maybe I was only seeing everybody’s old houndstooth on laundry day.

In September, when a dead cute, black on white, printed houndstooth, Gap jumper skipped onto the kindergarten scene, I decided that houndstooth was for real. In northern Europe, it’s been for real since before recorded history, but anyone circulating among clothed humans in the United States can start looking around and see that houndstooth is having a major moment right now. Ask any young woman between 20 and 30 years old about houndstooth and expect her to open her response with, “I LOVE houndstooth!”

It made a bold appearance at the Grammys this year – sort of. Ryan Lewis’s heroic scale shepherd check suit by Mr Turk is being taken for houndstooth all over the internet. The Mr Turk Facebook page also calls it houndstooth referring to the Houndstooth Jacquard Zack Blazer that is currently available for purchase to anyone with $271.60 regardless of Grammy credentials.

With such big checks, the slight misclassification hardly matters. In the context of its 21^st century proliferation, houndstooth might not even recognize itself in the mirror anymore. As it appears on the clothes that come and go all day, houndstooth takes the form of a jagged, check motif. The zappy shape of the check, like lightning bolts,  suggests a traditional woven pattern called houndstooth. The $271.60 Zack blazer is indeed a jacquard woven blazer that features an all over houndstooth check motif. The simplified checks on the GAP jumper are printed on a cotton rib weave.

Houndstooth has become the name of a surface design that looks like an old color and structural variation of woven cloth. Both houndstooth and shepherd check originated in woven cloth as patterns that required a plan. To make houndstooth, a weaver had to have two colors of yarn and a commitment to counting: 1-2-3-4 dark, 1-2-3-4  light…over and over, never varying. Shepherd check is boxier, and calls for a larger repeat: 1-2-3-4-5-6 dark, 1-2-3-4-5-6 light.