Two colors do more work in Vichy than you might expect. Weavers cross alternating bands of colored and white cotton yarn, creating solid-color squares, white squares and a softer mixed tone where the two meet. Two colors give you three tones, with the same pattern running through to the reverse. The depth is built into the fabric, with individual threads still visible inside that clean geometry.

The size of the squares changes the whole effect. Small squares can read almost as texture, while larger ones make the grid much more assertive. The pattern has moved through clothing and interiors for generations, but its graphic character comes from those choices of yarn, color and proportion, long before it's cut into anything.

If a check can move from a kitchen curtain to a wedding dress without changing its geometry, how much of what we call modern is in the fabric, and how much is in the way we see it?