SewStripes Revisited: Are Stripes the Most Versatile Print?

We kick off #MAYWeRemindYou month with a revisit of the Sew Stripes theme month. In this revisit, we ask the question: Are stripes the most versatile print?

Bear with me here. On the face of it, stripes seem quite bold and less subtle than other prints. They have associations—like with striped prison uniforms or circus pants. That makes them sound much less versatile and much more of a fixed proposition.

However, their geometric and usually continuous nature allows them to be whatever you want them to be, as our theme month showed!

They can be used to amazing effect in all sorts of garments, as this selection from the original theme month back in February of 2018 shows.

You can make other patterns out of them (like chevrons). Stripes are one of the only patterns that let you do this so easily—frankly, it’s hard to make a floral or a spot into anything other than a floral or a spot.

You can even make them yourself from other fabrics! That is much harder with other prints without additional techniques, such as applique.

Stripes don’t seem to age and don’t seem to go out of fashion either. They have ditched the negative associations, and we have happily moved on from the foolish idea that you can only wear stripes in one direction—it looks like stripes are here to stay!

So, what do you think? Are stripes the most versatile print? What’s your favourite way to wear stripes?

We will leave you with the World’s Greatest Woman showing us how amazing a striped suit can be! Go Team Stripes!

Credit to E! News, Mrs. O, Good Housekeeping, Insider and Pop Sugar for these images.

Chloe is a Sewcialists Editor who lives and sews in Australia, on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. She blogs at chlo-thing.com and can be found on Instagram here.