Earlier this year in the balmy month of June, a funny, Exaggerated Plaid quietly filtered into the Maharam line-up. Since none of us were ready to think about fall and winter patterns yet, Paul Smith‘s fifth textile design with the family run, New York-based company is revving it’s engine as the cold weather sets in.

Exaggerated Plaid. Designed by Paul Smith in collaboration with the Maharam Design Studio.

Paul Smith and the Maharam Design Studio: Textile No. 5

“Moving beyond his signature stripes into a new twist on tradition, Exaggerated Plaid is a modern take on Scottish heritage,” states the press release put out by the textile design company. Coming in three distinct plaids that each possess different qualities, Paul Smith used what the call an “unlikely use of color” with a wide range of densities. A well-known design trick, this effect causes the fabric to leave a more dramatic, memorable feel.

To stray from the scratchy feel and reputation of old-fashioned, scratchy and wooly plaids, the Exaggerated Plaid designs are carefully manufactured using smooth, soft woolen spun yarn that brings out what they appropriately describe as a “rustic, warmly textured cloth”. It comes in a 58″ (147 cm) wide fabric with piercing stripes of goldenrod, sky, crimson, and fuschia jumping out of the charcoal, chocolate, and loden fabrics – making it anything but ordinary.

Earlier this summer, the Transparent Stripe digital project by Paul Smith was featured here on 3rings, and it was then that this successful fashion designer began to appear to me as the master of the eccentric linear. Not short of amazing, Smith has been able to capture the beauty in combining simple designs with interesting color palettes – and with ten years under his belt as a Maharam collaborative designer, his range continues to flourish with each new design.

Via otto.