Plaid and the Herd

As I was wandering around Berlin in the lovely afternoon sunshine today, my thoughts turned to my folks who both travelled around post-war Germany as 1950s students – separately, as well. Bugger the gap-year, I say.

A lot of their photos of the time feature young German fellas in check (plaid) shirts.

I seem to remember that these were called “Douglashemder” (Douglas Shirts) at the time (mum still uses that word) and that this was rooted in the longstanding (centuries-old) German Romanticising of the Celtic Fringe…and some derring-do heroics of a fellow called Dougal(all very Master of Tannenbrae or somesuch)

Does anyone know the real story? And are they still called this?

We need to know: it’s very on-trend for this season…