By Adam Tschorn

February 13, 2013, 1:32 p.m.
NEW  YORK -- The hounds-tooth check is turning out to be a trend with some serious legs this season. After first gathering steam at the Milan and Paris men’s ready-to-wear shows (at Calvin Klein, Paul Smith  and Versace, among others), we first spotted it running wild  this side of the Atlantic at the Tommy Hilfiger men’s runway show in a range of sizes and colors.  (That’s where we also learned, thanks to the screens flanking the exits streaming real-time social media reactions, that the Spanish equivalent of hounds-tooth is “la pata de gallo,” which translates as “crow’s foot.”)

But Hilfiger was far from the only brand pimping the pattern, and we’ve even noticed womenswear designers bearing their collective hounds-teeth on the catwalk this season, including Thom Browne, J. Crew, Rebecca Minkoff and, of course, Hilfiger’s womenswear show.

But perhaps the coolest use of the pattern so far this season came from a menswear designer named Asher Levine, a young New York-based designer whose work has been worn by the likes of Adam Lambert, Johnny Weir and the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am.  His fall-winter 2013 collection riffed on and re-interpreted the hounds-tooth check, using a micro-scale version on ultra-cool, effortless rocker tuxedos, trousers and lounge pants and a textured three-dimensional monochrome variation on sweatshirts and pants. Levine also managed to bring the hounds-tooth check to life, animating it like a short-winged bat in an animation sequence that played in the background during his Tuesday night fashion show.

It was hands-down the most creative and memorable take on the trend we’ve seen all week.

ALSO:

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: J. Crew menswear

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Tommy Hilfiger review

New York Fashion Week fall 2013: Thom Browne womenswear