Alabama's HOUNDSTOOTH HISTORY

FASHION
Alabama’s
HOUNDSTOOTH
HISTORY
Though they bleed crimson, many Tide fans
show their true colors by donning houndstooth, a
tradition that started with Paul W. “Bear” Bryant
and continues in the Saban era
BY MEREDITH CUMMINGS
Chris Starnes sees it all the time. When he
travels to trade shows to sell his houndstooth
wares, he can immediately tell
who is familiar with the Southeastern
Conference and who is not.
“I don’t have anything at my booth
that says ‘Alabama,’ just houndstooth products, but
when they walk by they say, ‘That’s an Alabama booth,’
” Starnes says. “Then I’ll have people from Missouri
walk up and go, ‘Oh. Ya’ll sell checkerboard.’ ”
Starnes, who will graduate in May from the University
of Alabama with a degree in business management,
has seen firsthand the rise of houndstooth,
from a pattern on Bear Bryant’s hat to a symbol of all
things Crimson Tide. He is owner of Houndstoothhut.
com and Gamedaycollection.com, and has built his
business on selling houndstooth products wholesale
to retailers.
“It wasn’t synonymous with the university like it
is now,” Starnes says of the early days of his business
four years ago. “I would go in the stores and have to
explain houndstooth and I would have to sell people
on the fact that Alabama fans wanted houndstooth.”
But in other parts of the country, it’s just an attractive
pattern that sells well there, too.
“This year we couldn’t keep scarves,” Starnes says.
“If you wear it outside of that game-day setting, it’s
still a good-looking garment.”
A BEAR TRADITION
Everyone knows that the university’s original affiliation
with houndstooth came from Coach Paul
BRYANT MUSEUM
“Bear” Bryant, and two of his houndstooth hats are on
Legendary Coach Paul W. ‘Bear’ Bryant started the houndstooth tradition at Alabama
with his choice of headwear.
display at the Bryant Museum on campus.
>>
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FASHION
GREGORY ENNS
Nearly 30 years after Bryant’s coaching days, two young Tide fans wear houndstooth hats to last year’s A-Day game. The hats are a common sight at Tide
football games.
KENT GIDLEY/UA ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
Terry Saban kept warm in this houndstooth winter coat during
the Tide’s visit to the White House March 8.
KENT GIDLEY/UA ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
Shonda Ingram donned a houndstooth
cap during son Mark’s Heisman weekend
in December.
Since the Bryant days houndstooth
has been a sort of unofficial symbol of
UA and, to a point, Tuscaloosa. Take
the Houndstooth Bar or Houndstooth
Condominiums, for example. First
Lady of UA football Terry Saban even
donned a houndstooth-print coat for
the football team’s White House visit in
March to meet President Obama after
winning the national championship.
And Mark Ingram’s mom, Shonda,
donned a houndstooth cap during her
son’s whirlwind Heisman weekend in
New York in December.
Perhaps the best friend of houndstooth is the law. Because houndstooth
can’t be copyrighted, it’s pervasive. Anyone can use it.
It was actually [Gasp!] a New Yorker whom ‘Bama fans can thank for the
houndstooth hat.
Ken Gaddy, director of the Paul W. Bryant Museum, says Bryant had
always worn fedora-style hats or a baseball hat on the sidelines.
“So it wasn’t anything new for him wearing a hat,” Gaddy says. “But
when Joe Namath was being sought after by the New York Jets in 1964,
Sonny Werblin, owner of the Jets, was trying to get Namath to sign with
them. He gave Coach Bryant that hat during that time and I don’t think it
was planned, but then other people started giving hats to him. You’ve got
to remember the time, so that’s what everybody would have been wearing.
It was what men did.”
Gaddy says people often come into the museum with hats they claim
belonged to Bryant, but with no way to authenticate their stories they are
turned away. Bryant’s family donated the hats on display in the museum.
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FASHION
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SCOTT BOWMAN
These houndstooth hats, donated by the family of Coach Paul W. ‘Bear’
Bryant, are on display at the Bryant Museum on the UA campus.
“There was also a line of
hats that had his name in it
in 1980 to ’81 with a reproduction
of his signature in
the band, so a lot of time
people mistakenly think
that was his hat,” Gaddy
says.
TREND ON THE RISE
Now, Gaddy adds, he
sees more houndstooth
sell at the museum than
in years past, as both men
and women pick up the
trend.
“You see houndstooth
SCOTT BOWMAN
sometimes in the fashion
world. They were using it not with any connection with
Coach Bryant, but you see everything from women’s headbands
to rain boots and everything in between,” Gaddy
says. “Houndstooth scarves were big for the last couple of
years, and we’ve been selling a lot of those here. You see
men wearing those.”
Starnes, who started his business out of his apartment
when he was a sophomore at UA, got the idea at a Tide football
game. Nike had just rolled out a new houndstooth hat,
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SCOTT BOWMAN
Model Tiffany Chapman shows off
houndstooth headwear.
and it was a hit when the company
gave it away to students at the games.
“They gave away some in the
student section, but there are people
standing out there outside the stadium
with $100 bills trying to buy hats off of
people that Nike was giving away.”
But it was the houndstooth beer
koozie that really kicked off Starnes’
business.
“I was a rookie and really didn’t
know what I was doing,” he says.
“I’m sitting there hanging out with my
friends like a college kid and everybody
has got beers in koozies.”
So he slapped a houndstooth pattern
on one and starting going to
stores to sell them. It was the Alabama
Bookstore on the Strip that took a
chance on him; when Starnes left a dozen on the counter they were
sold in 30 minutes. Soon Hibbett Sports, The Trunk and other stores
were on board and from there “it was really like a dream come
true” for Starnes.
A SCOTTISH IMPORT
Houndstooth, known in the textile world as a duotone, balanced
twill weave, has always been fashionable. If you wanted to avoid a
fight with spears, swords and shields in old Scotland, houndstooth
would have been a safe wardrobe choice. Clans registered their tartans,
and anyone not allowed to wear a particular pattern would be
asking for the equivalent of a bar fight today. >>
FASHION
SCOTT BOWMAN
Chris Starnes, a UA undergraduate who started an Internet business
selling houndstooth products, is decked out in a houndstooth tie
and pants and is holding a houndstooth hat.
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FASHION
SCOTT BOWMAN
Koozies, key chains and headbands are just a few of the
items that can be purchased in houndstooth.
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Not a problem with houndstooth,
though. It wasn’t registered, though
it did spring from those old Scottish
Lowland tartans, says Virginia Wimberley,
assistant professor and curator of
the Carolyn Thomas Stewart costume
collection.
“The houndstooth is not registered
so anybody could wear it,” Wimberley
says. “So you wouldn’t be illegal and it
wouldn’t be a fighting incident if you
weren’t entitled to wear it.
“It looks a bit more complicated than
it is. It’s always a two tone, but the original
was white and black and it came
out of Scotland. It was always done on a
wool fabric, eventually, and it’s an easy plaid to do, but it looks fancier and
more difficult. A lot of those plaids started to be written down in the 1700s.
This one was pretty popular in the early 1800s.”
Wimberley says the pattern gained popularity when Edward VIII, then the
Prince of Wales, sported it in the early 20th century. The pattern, also known
as Glen plaid, seems to peak each year when wool fabrics suit the season.
“[President Ronald] Reagan wore it when he made the trip abroad, and
people thought that he didn’t look very presidential when he wore that
plaid, and they thought he was looking too casual going to Europe in that,”
Wimberley says. “I’m sure if he thought the Prince of Wales wore it then the
crowd would like it over there.”
As for ’Bama’s connection to plaid, no one really thinks Coach Bryant was
looking to set fashion trends and grace the cover of Vogue magazine.
“I’m not sure he put a lot into what hat he was wearing that day,” Gaddy
says. “I’m not sure fashion decision was a big part of his day. I think he had
other things on his mind.”
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