[Clever title involving wordplay on 'plaid' here]

Mad for Plaid!
You're Invited to the Plaid Party!

I love men's button-down shirts.  Preferably vintage* (super soft and worn-in) and almost always in a plaid...although I don't mind the occasional stripe.  My go-to outfit consists of a slightly over-sized version of the aforementioned half-tucked into ankle-length skinny jeans with a variety of accessories, shoes, and layers depending on the season and what I'm doing.  If I were petite and blonde, I might pass for an Olsen twin circa 2008.

Luckily for me (and you!), there's no shortage of vintage button-down shirts out there.  The hard part (for me, anyways) is finding a decent plaid in a color scheme that's juuuuust right.  Easier said than done but I know it when I see it.  I recently sorted through my huge (seriously, folks: I think a million is a conservative estimate) collection and realized some of them just aren't in my regular rotation.  My favorite color is navy and the button-downs I wear most often are dominated by blues.  Coincidentally, the ones I wear least have mostly yellow, orange, brown, and red hues in them, not unlike the fall foliage, so I'm calling this an Autumn shirt collection!

Here's the story of some very lovely shirts...

They're perfect, Amber-approved plaids (and stripes) in great colors...I'm guessing I'm attracted to these shirts because autumn is my favorite season...but not necessarily my most-flattering-colors-to-wear season season.  Not that I know what my 'season' is...because I don't.

Survey: Do you know what your 'season' is? Do you believe in that idea?  It was kind of a big deal back in the eighties...see the awesome video about Color Me Beautiful that spawned this.  Or just listen to it while you continue surfing the internets.  2 highlights: at 38:20 she identifies the different 'clothing personalities' with very specific, er, suggestions, for your style, plus hilarious sweeping generalizations about your personality, based on your body shape...aaaand it starts with a great theme song, played again at 57:39, and also heard at 21:40.  Oh, and the host is sitting in the most awesomely random wicker/bamboo throne chair.  This video is gold, guys.  Trust me.

Once you know your season you can figure out your clothing personality.

Seriously, what's not to love about fall autumn?  (And doesn't 'autumn' sound so much chicer than 'fall'?)  Pumpkin spice flavored everything... Wearing layers...  The sunlight, and the weather are perfection right now and the leaves are beautiful.  The weather has been unusually mild (woo! global warming!) and I always feel like the leaves change colors suddenly, and more dramatically than the cherry blossom thing in the spring. (This is overrated.)  My favorite part of fall autumn was jumping in the huge pile of leaves my dad would rake in the backyard.  Now, the thought of doing that grosses me out in the same way I can't believe I loved playing in the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.

Leaf Pile vs. Ball Pit. Childhood pastimes revisited. 

Of course, each of these shirts has a special place in my heart and I'll be telling you more about them soon.  Hopefully, you'll have room in your heart and your closet for one of them!

The autumn shirt collection, beautifully folded but not to retail standards: those edges aren't lined up! And the buttons are all over the place!

*Obviously, the emphasis here is on vInTaGe but I've scored some great, vintage-y plaids in the men's section at J.Crew and even former cool-kid, Gap.