Mad for Plaid: Fashion Designer Jeffrey Banks Releases New Book on Everything You Need to Know About Tartan

Award-winning fashion designer Jeffrey Banks’ personal plaid collection includes ties, jackets, handkerchiefs, teddy bears, plates and much more. In fact, he is so passionate about tartan that he has just published a six pound book about it with hundreds of pictures featuring plaid in film, on the runway, in interior design and even on the moon!

Tartan plaid symbolizes kin, clan, nation and rebellion for the Scots. Every Scottish Highlander clan had its own distinct plaid. After the British banned tartan for a time, the pattern came back stronger than ever. Today, it has become one of the world’s favorite fabrics, representing elegance and high fashion.

Banks’ book features an array of tartan enthusiasts, including the Duke of Windsor, whose closet was filled with tartan kilts; Madonna, who has strut her plaid on stage; punk-inspired designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen; and the classic fashions of Ralph Lauren and Burberry.

Banks is a Coty award-winning designer of men’s and women’s apparel and has worked with several Scottish fabric mills to design tartans of his own. The book, Tartan: Romancing the Plaid, is co-authored with freelance writer and former Henri Bendel advertising director Doria de La Chapelle. It also includes a forward by Rosemarie Bravo, CEO of Burberry.

Tartan can be found at the beautiful, wood paneled Rizzoli Bookstore at 31 West 57th St. (between 5th and 6th Aves.), in New York City. Or, click here to purchase the book now – a perfect gift for the holidays!