Glen plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid), also known as Glenurquhart check or Prince of Wales check, is a woollen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks.^[1] It is usually made of black/grey and white, or with more muted colours, particularly with two dark and two light stripes alternating with four dark and four light stripes, which creates a crossing pattern of irregular checks.^[2] Glen plaid as a woven pattern may be extended to cotton shirting and other non-woollen fabrics.

Name

The name is taken from the Glenurquhart Estate in Inverness-shire, Scotland, where the checked pattern was first used during the 1840s by the Countess of Seafield^[3] to fit out her gamekeepers,^[1] though the name 'Glen plaid' does not appear before 1926.^[4]

Glen plaid is also known as the Prince of Wales check, as it was first made famous by King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.^[5] The pattern was later popularized by King Edward VIII when he was Prince of Wales.^[6] In other words, despite its internationally known name (French prince de Galles, Spanish príncipe de Gales, Italian principe di Galles, etc.), the Prince of Wales check is not a Welsh pattern but a Scottish one.

Notable wearers

Pee-wee Herman was famous for his light-grey Glen plaid suit, and U.S. President Ronald Reagan was considered "unpresidential" in a gray-and-blue Glen plaid suit on a European trip in 1982.^[7] In addition, Cary Grant wore a grey suit in a subtle Glen plaid during the 1959 American spy thriller film North by Northwest.