National Argyle Day

Argyle – you probably think of argyle socks and sweaters when you hear the name, but there’s no reason to limit its usage to only those sorts of things when there’s a diversity of argyle designs that bring life and interest to the world of fashion and design!

An argyle pattern is made of diamonds or lozenges, with overlapping motifs that typically contain an overlay of intercrossing diagonal lines on solid diamonds.

You’ve seen it on the tartan hose that Scotsmen wear with kilts, on old golf outfits, and not least of all on socks. The pattern has lent itself to a wider variety of uses in recent years, everything from leggings to kinesiology tape.

National Argyle Day is just the time to show appreciation for and enjoy this fascinating pattern that is both vintage and new!

How to Celebrate National Argyle Day

Sport Some Argyle

The most obvious method of celebrating National Argyle Day would be\ to wear argyle patterned clothing. You could go for a more traditional argyle sweater or a pair of argyle socks, but there’s no reason that you can’t be more creative and/or find something else that’s cute.

Host an Argyle Knitting Party

If you knit or crochet, all the better because then you can play host to an argyle-knitting party, where you call up all of your friends and create various items with argyle patterns.

Decorate an Argyle Cake

If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous and cake decoration is more your thing, then we suggest decorating a cake with an argyle pattern. Of course, you can also make argyle cupcakes or even an argyle cheesecake. The point is that argyle is a particular pattern you really could incorporate anywhere that you wish in celebration of National Argyle Day!

History of National Argyle Day

The argyle pattern comes from the tartan of Clan Campbell, which originated in Argyll in western Scotland. While this pattern was used by members of Clan Campbell for kilts and plaids, the argyle pattern has been worn in the form of patterned socks by various clans in Scotland from the 17th century.

After WWI, the pattern became popular first in Britain and then in the United States because of its association with the Duke of Windsor. The Duke used the argyle pattern for his golf clothing, incorporating it for both his jerseys as well as the long socks that were commonly used as part of golf costumes during that period.

Since then, argyle has been adopted by other golf enthusiasts. Starting sometime in the 1980s, this pattern was considered “preppy”.

The background of National Argyle Day is a bit debated. One celebration was the brainchild of Richard Fletcher, but that event does not fall on the same date that it seems to be celebrated in other circles. In other words, some people think argyle is awesome (which we won’t dispute) and so we have National Argyle Day.

Honestly, though, the point of the event is what matters – and that is to bring this fascinating little pattern to the forefront and offer it some accolades!