All Access Pass: Here’s your VIP badge for to the backstage loveliness at Victoria’s Secret. [Horny Oyster]

Holy C+ Batman!: A complete ranking of Batman’s best and worst gadgets—and you thought Bond liked his toys. [Wired]

Marching Orders: Nike teams up with the Army to create the fastest soldiers on earth. [PSFK]

The Shoe Hound’s Dog House: A brief profile of Leffot. [The Moment]

Let The Games Begin: Every one of these Olympic hotties deserves a medal. [Gawker]

Hot LOVA: A little bit “Mad Men,” a little bit Revenge of the Nerds—all good. [The Pipeline]

Check That: Real Mad Men wear plaid. [A Continuous Lean]

The Impostor: A tour of some of the more innovative uses of the Louis Vuitton pattern, not counting Mr. Murakami. [Gawker]

Scarlett Fever: A critical consideration of Scarlett Johansson. With bikini pics. [ThisRecording]

Tartan Love: A user’s guide to the plaid suit. [AskMen]

Kind of Gray: Style tips to see you through the non-summer months. Don’t forget your mittens. [A Suitable Wardrobe]

The Britons have many fascinating customs, but few are more sartorially lush than hunting. American hunting outfits tends to be waxed canvas, flannel, and the occasional silly hat, but the Britons are a bit more stylish.

For instance, this Stansfield Hunting Jacket. The patches give it a military look, but it’s never less than noble, and the off-kilter pockets and exposed buttons are icing on the cake. Of course, that beige plaid isn’t for beginners, but it’s probably the shortest path to looking like the Duke of Windsor.

At least without passing through Savile Row.

Scotch plaid has always been a little too garish to be taken in anything but the smallest doses, but a bowtie happens to be just the right amount. It’s so colorful that you’ll have to be careful not to clash, but we assume you’re clever enough to handle it.

And it should stay comfortably above the waist.

We’ve been a little hard on plaid lately…but maybe it’s because we haven’t seen anything from a real Scot.

This Tartaned trench comes from one more of J. Crew’s impeccable collaborations. This time, it’s the Scottish brand Mackintosh: the company more responsible than any other for protecting the Britons from near-constant rain. Their first collab showed up at the Tribeca store in a flat navy, but they just updated it into a plaid that gives it a little more cultural charm.

It might venture a little below the waist, but in this case we’ll make an exception.

We have to hand it to the Brits; they make a damn fine scarf.

The latest example is from a small London studio called Leto & Ariadne. They claim to pay most of their attention to drape and texture, but their approach to color is what caught our eye. The scarves blend simple colors in a way that’s equal parts Scottish plaid and Southwestern quilting, all with nothing more than fancy loomwork.

Now if they could just find a stateside shop…

Now that loose knits are taking off, it may be time to take another look at Scotland. They’ve been working on the loose sweater for a few centuries now, and mixed in with a Highland tweeds, it may the best equipment you can find for next winter.

Coventry is our favorite Scot so far. Coming from menswear vet Matthew Terry, the label combines traditional Shetland wools with a paint-it-black design aesthetic not that far from downtown staples like Comme Des Garcons.

They’re unveiling their F/W 09 line in a scant few weeks, but this sketch comes straight from Mr. Terry’s pad, which suggests there are a few plaid overcoats in our future.

See a few looks from previous lines»

Lost in Translation: Ms. Jessica Stam travels to Tokyo. [FashionIndie]

The Man, the Myth: Hypebeast lands an interview with Stan Smith, and traces his shoe’s evolution from one-off endorsement to style icon. Our jealousy is palpable. [Hypebeast]

Check It: Behold, the plaids of spring. [Shoptometrist]

Mr. Bixby: Andre Benjamin unveils a few more wearable items from the Benjamin Bixby line. Sadly, no balloon this time around. [The Steel Closet]

As much as fashion media tends to focus on clothes, real style comes from knowing how to wear them…which doesn’t go without saying.

H(y)r Collective just posted a smart take on correctly approaching plaid shorts, which contains crucial info surrounding what might be the preppiest item of clothing on earth. The main gem is this: Stay between one and three inches above the knee, and everything will be ok.

And, if at all possible, try to wear them on a yacht.

For a few years in the 60s, the plaid blazer was the height of country club sartorial adventurousness. But for the past 30 years, it’s been worn with a decidedly different intent.

These days you’re most likely to see it in a record store, accompanied by a Mohawk and a full set of piercings. The off-color patch makes it clear Junya Watanabe is on the latter side of the equation with this Commes des Garcons item. But maybe he should have checked with Vivienne Westwood before he took this one on. He seems to have missed the point.

The appeal of the loud plaid blazer doesn’t just come from the fact that it looks like something Curtis LeMay wore on weekends. It also looks like something you picked up at a vintage store for $5, which might make its boutique appeal somewhat limited…

It’s always nice to see an entire event devoted to a single item of clothing. And we’ve always had a soft spot for the kilt in particular…

So we had high hopes for Dressed to Kilt, a charity fashion show put on by Homecoming Scotland 2009, and boasting more tartan than we’ve ever seen in one place.

Of course, we were most impressed by the GEICO caveman—we were big fans of the show—but there were a few other noteworthy models too»

Naturally, the most interesting folks at Dressed to Kilt weren’t necessarily on the runway. And while we saw our share of kilts, the more common choice was just to throw in as much plaid as possible as a more inventive way of staying true to Scotland. Which lead to some interesting choices…

Think of it from a sporting perspective: whoever wears the most plaid and looks the best wins. It’s not a bad sartorial challenge, and the result was nothing short of enlightening.

Our takeaway? Without fail, the best dressed gentlemen in the crowd were rocking plaid blazers and bowties. We saw the occasional kilt too, but as far as mainstream style items, we’d put our bets on tartan jackets first.

The shacket has been a hipper-than-thou staple in New York circles for some time—here’s the culprit, if you were wondering—but it mostly stuck to equestrian tweed and aside from a few flagship models, there wasn’t too much variation.

Luckily, Band of Outsiders is picking up the mantle with this heavy plaid shirt, which arrived today in Blackbird. It makes sense, since you can find that quasi-Buffalo check on both overcoats and button-ups. And while you can wear it in place of a blazer, like the gentleman in the picture, in less wintry times you can also throw it on over a light t-shirt and count on the lining to protect you against any errant breezes. It’s one trend that definitely deserves its second act.

Tom Ford’s latest Fall line has a lot of noteworthy goodies—including Moncler-style bubblegooses, windowpane suits and Matthau-esque check undershirts—but what stood out to us was this mildly costume-y velvet-and-plaid ensemble.

Most of the garments in question can be traced back to Mr. Ford’s well-documented yen for the mid-70s, but the tartan pants reach all the way back to the days of Leave it to Beaver. The jacket’s pure Hefner—familiar territory, to be sure—but it’s easy to forget that Hugh started out in the 50s too, even if it was more the decade of Henry Miller than Fred McMurray. Apparently Mr. Ford remembers.