Houndstooth

Houndstooth, hounds tooth check or hound's tooth (and similar spellings), also known as dogstooth, dogtooth or dog's tooth, is a duotone textile pattern characterized by broken checks or abstract four-pointed shapes, often in black and white, although other colours are used. The classic houndstooth pattern is an example of a tessellation.

A smaller scale version of the pattern can be referred to as puppytooth.

Design and history

Houndstooth checks originated in woven wool cloth of the Scottish Lowlands, but are now used in many other materials. The traditional houndstooth check is made with alternating bands of four dark and four light threads in both warp and weft/filling woven in a simple 2:2 twill, two over/two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass. In an early reference to houndstooth, De Pinna, a New York City–based men's and women's high-end clothier founded in 1885, included houndstooth checks along with gun club checks and Scotch plaids as part of its 1933 spring men's suits collection. Oversized houndstooth patterns were also employed prominently at Alexander McQueen's Fall 2009 Collection, entitled Horn of Plenty. The patterns were a reference to Christian Dior's signature tweed suits.

Cynoglossum officinale

Cynoglossum officinale (houndstongue, houndstooth, dog's tongue, gypsy flower, and rats and mice due to its smell) is a herbaceous plant of the family Boraginaceae, found in most parts of Europe, and also North America where it was accidentally introduced.

Growth

It can be either annual or biennial, with reddish-purple flowers blooming between May and September. It lives in wet places, waste land and hedges.

Folklore

The name houndstongue comes from the belief that it could ward off dog attacks if a leaf was worn in the shoe.

Herbalism

Herbalists use the plant as a treatment for piles, lung diseases and persistent coughs. Houndstongue ointment is said to cure baldness and be used for sores and ulcers. These uses are not supported by scientific evidence.

In 1725, houndstooth was presented in the family dictionary, Dictionaire oeconomique, as part of a cure for madness. In that book, madness was viewed as "a distemper, not only of the understanding, but also of the reason and memory, proceeding from a cold, which drys up everything it meets with that is humid in the brain." To cure madness, Dictionaire oeconomique noted:

Houndstooth (record label)

History

Houndstooth is an independent record label based in Farringdon, London. Houndstooth is the artist-led label from the London nightclub Fabric, and was started in February 2013 by label manager Leo Belchetz, A&R Rob Booth and managing director Rob Butterworth. The label is home to artists such as Special Request, Akkord, Call Super, Snow Ghosts, Throwing Snow, Second Storey, Soft as Snow and 18+.

In November 2013, Houndstooth was chosen by XLR8R as its Best Label Of 2013. In December 2013, Houndstooth came third in Resident Advisor's poll of its Top 20 Labels Of 2013, and was included in Dazed & Confused's Top Ten Labels Of 2013.

In December 2014, Juno Plus selected a Houndstooth album, Call Super's 'Suzi Ecto', as their best album of 2014. 'Suzi Ecto' and the debut album from fellow Houndstooth artist 18+, 'Trust', were also named in Dummy Magazine's 20 Best Albums Of 2014. Houndstooth was voted one of Tinymixtapes' 15 Favourite Labels of 2014, and made it into the Best Labels, Best Releases and Best Tracks of XLR8R's 'Best of 2014' readers' poll.