Glen Urquhart plaid, also called glen plaid or Prince of Wales check, is one of those patterns that has simply refused to date. Small and large checks laid over a fine houndstooth or bird's eye, woven together into something that looks like plain texture from across a room and only shows you its structure when you get close. Kings have worn it, the best British houses have cut it for a century, and men who know what they are doing use it as a signature rather than a statement. We make glen plaid suits in heritage British and Italian cloth across a range of colourways and weights.
Where the pattern comes from
The name comes from Glen Urquhart in the Scottish Highlands, where estate workers on the Countess of Seafield's land were weaving it in the nineteenth century. The Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, wore it constantly through the 1920s and 1930s. That is what carried it around the world, and it has been stuck to his name ever since, along with that particular mix of royal ease and Savile Row precision.
It is a complicated cloth to weave and a very quiet one to wear, which is a nice combination. Most colourways sit in charcoal and cream, navy and ivory, or brown and cream, all of which pass as straightforward professional choices while giving you far more to look at than a plain length would. Add an overcheck, a thin line of colour laid across the main pattern, and you get another layer again. It is an easy way to make a suit yours without anybody quite being able to say why.