How houndstooth and puppy-tooth became iconic

Houndstooth, hounds-tooth check or hound’s tooth - all spellings are correct - and you might find some more synonyms I am sure! It is also known as dogstooth, dog-tooth or dog’s tooth.

A smaller scale version of the pattern can be referred to as puppy-tooth.

In my good old French language, we call it “le” Pied-de-Poule for the puppy-tooth. Oui, Monsieur. Not to confuse it with le Pied-de-Coq, Madame, which is the houndstooth one.

A houndstooth pattern is a duo-tone textile pattern characterised by broken checks abstract four-pointed shapes. It was originally found in black and white.

However over the years, it has been modernised and created in other colours.

We call the houndstooth pattern, a tessellation. Ah, so you will ask me, what on Earth is a tessellation!? A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps. The synonym for tessellation is tiling.

After reading a lot on the subject and investigating much about its origins, we thought it originated in Scotland at the start of the 19th century. Back then, it was worn as an outer garment of woven wool cloth by shepherds. This is why in some archives we find it to be called “Shepherd’s Check” too. I also found that its origin may come exactly from the Lowlands in Scotland and the houndstooth was worn by people that didn’t belong to any “clan” back then or did not want to belong to any clan and get in trouble.

There is a tight connection with the glen plaid (or the Glenurquhart check) which is a woolen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks. It is usually made of black/grey and white, or with more muted colours, particularly with two dark and two light stripes alternate with four dark and four light stripes which creates a crossing pattern of irregular checks.

During the 1930s, the houndstooth pattern was adopted by the upper class as a symbol of wealth. Edward VIII, Prince of Wales, was the first to promote that pattern within his pears.

Since the French had a fantastic relationship with England {my sarcastic sense of humour is good, no?} they probably stole the idea of using the pattern in fashion. As they stole the fries from Belgium. But this is for another post. Quel outrage to write such a thing. I know. But it was too tempting… Pure banter. After so many years being in the UK, banter and self-deprecation are part of me..

Let’s focus on fashion.

In the 1940s, Christian Dior is the first one to promote and use this pattern in his collections. He started with the well-known Dior tailleur and used it also to design a pointed court shoe featuring the pattern. He requested assistance from Roger Vivier and the Dior escarpins in pied-de-poule were born.

While doing my research, I could read people were discussing who really came up with the use of pied-de-poule in fashion: was it not Coco Chanel? Lanvin? Was it really Dior? My inner feeling tells me we will never ‘really’ know who was “the very very very first” although nowadays, I think customers really associate the pattern originally with Dior since he used it for fashion but perfumes’ packaging as well. {If like me you are dying to go to the Dior exhibition at the V&A but didn't get tickets, hi five! I hope to get a ticket next month as they release a few here and there every now and then..)

It actually echoes, to me, what Axel Dumas, Hermès CEO said about the fashion houses back in the days: “Fifty years ago, you had Hermès here, which was men, and Lanvin on the other side of the street, which was only women, explains Dumas. There were a lot of weddings between the two.” And things were inevitably exchanged in a way as well, I am most certain.

Interestingly enough, the hound’s-tooth is never a pattern that goes out of fashion. It becomes much stronger certain years but is always used in a constant way.

In the 1960s, Anne Klein {who I adore!} revived it within her menswear line.

We even found it in upholstery of the Renault Dauphine car, in the 60s as well! Later on in a more modern Peugeot 108, under the Dressy theme! Oulala…

Fashion houses like Chanel and Vuitton used it in their collections, in the 1990s onwards.

Later on in 2009, Alexander McQueen re-invented {for me} the pattern by using the bird theme in his collection. Very dramatic and refreshing at the same time.

Within interiors, DEDAR is the one that found the best way to re-colour and re-invent the pattern. Michele Bonan used the Poulette collection {what a fantastically well imagined name! Poulette < > Pied-de-poule!} for all the upholstery of l’Hotel de Vendome in Paris! Bravo!

At Fifi De Lyon, our very favorite remains the Hermès Pixel pattern for luxury interiors. The fact someone thought about using a horse in the pattern of the puppytooth is incredibly clever. Pure genius in fact.

And you, do you have in your wardrobe a dress or a scarf with a houndstooth or a puppy-tooth pattern? Or maybe a nice cashmere throw in your lounge? Or perhaps did you find a very corky item with that iconic pattern?

Feel free to share your experience with me today!

Urszula x

Credits and sources for this post

wikifashion.com/wiki/Houndstooth 1stontrend.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/history-of-houndstooth-5-2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houndstooth en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_plaid fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_de_Galles_%28tissu%29 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessellation www.danigarlet.com.br/2012/04/pied-de-poule-no-hotel-vendome-em-ny www.thecoolhunter.net/cloud/view/Paris www.tartangirlswardrobe.com/origine-et-utilisation-du-pied-de-poule-a102862355 inprintnyc.org www.hypebeast.com/2012/8/materials-and-patterns-houndstooth www.tartangirlswardrobe.com/origine-et-utilisation-du-pied-de-poule-part2-a102962659 www.closermag.fr/mode/look-du-jour/stella-mccartney-l-imprime-pied-de-poule-revisite-par-la-creatrice-436920 www.elle.fr/Beaute/News-beaute/Parfums/Le-parfum-Miss-Dior-au-musee-2620645 www.feline.cc/modeles/peugeot-108/personnalisation www.nouse.co.uk/2015/04/21/long-live-mcqueen www.ft.com/cms/s/2/75d8a0da-d228-11e4-a225-00144feab7de.html