Six pastel mini check ginghams. One New York City designer. All deadstock. These are exceptional fabrics: fine, precise, beautifully weighted, and rendered in the kind of soft, considered palette that only comes from a designer with a serious eye for color.

This is gingham at its best, and we're proud to offer them to our subscribers at a special savings. And if you want to know how a Kansas farmgirl, a French bombshell, and Olivia Rodrigo at Wimbledon are all part of the same fashion story — scroll down and geek out on gingham with us.

CODE GOOD THROUGH MAY 9

It all started with a Kansas farmgirl and a pair of ruby slippers. When Judy Garland stepped onto the yellow brick road in 1939 wearing a crisp blue gingham pinafore, costume designer Adrian transformed a humble household fabric into an American fashion icon overnight. Department stores rushed to replicate the dress, and sewing patterns appeared in fashion magazines so women could make their own.

Katharine Hepburn kept the momentum going in 1940, wearing a ruffled gingham skirt in The Philadelphia Story and giving the print a more sophisticated edge. Through the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were photographed in it off-duty — making gingham the rare pattern that could feel both girl-next-door and undeniably glamorous. Then in 1959, Brigitte Bardot wore a pink gingham bikini to her own wedding and caused a literal fabric shortage in France. From farmgirl to film star to international sensation — gingham had arrived, and it wasn't going anywhere.

Gingham never really left — it just waited for the right moment to remind us why we loved it. In 2023, Margot Robbie made it the unofficial fabric of the summer when she wore a custom pink gingham Prada set on the Barbie press tour, a look so perfectly pitched that it spawned a thousand imitations. Taylor Swift took it to the U.S. Open in 2024 in a Reformation gingham dress that sold out almost immediately, while Jennifer Lopez posted a Mother's Day Instagram in her own pink-and-white gingham that she loved so much she wore it three times.

Sabrina Carpenter — one of Gen Z's biggest style icons — put a bedazzled blue gingham bodysuit on the Short n' Sweet Tour stage and then doubled down by wearing a brown gingham babydoll top and matching bandana to launch her Lemon Pie fragrance campaign. Then in the summer of 2025, Olivia Rodrigo walked into Wimbledon in a vintage red-and-white Ralph Lauren gingham dress and Marie Claire declared it "the new summer uniform." From the pink carpet to the pop charts to Centre Court, gingham is everywhere — and it's never looked more alive.

CODE GOOD THROUGH MAY 9