Check in with Robert Pattinson and his plaid shirts from Remember Me

Casual check shirts are Tyler Hawkins' style staple.

There are certain things that every guy’s closet should have – one really good suit (doesn’t matter how casual you are 364 days a year, there’s gonna come a time when you need to smarten up and make your mom proud), a really cool pair of sunglasses (never to be worn indoors – that spells douche) and a plaid shirt. Some fashions come and go but check shirts always seem to be in style, easily fitting in with whatever trend is the hottest. Grunge enjoying a comeback? Chuck on some checks. Punk back in play? Pick plaid. Dressing as a lumberjack? You get the idea.

And it’s such a versatile and easy-to-wear look. Throw on a tie and a blazer to up the formality or roll the sleeves and pop your collar button for a more weekend casual thing. Style it with some board shorts and a vest for a summery vibe or cover it in a cardigan when the weather misbehaves. Its timelessness makes it perfect for fellas of any age, so whether you’re worrying about making the school sports team or getting that first grey hair, you’ve got something solid to rely on and, when really pushed, you can even grab it from the dirty laundry and wear – the scruffy wrinkles look intentional and last night’s spaghetti stains are hidden by the busy checks – nice.

Plaid doesn’t require a diploma in dressing well to make it work, in fact, it’s best when its low maintenance and under-played. Being so bold and colourful, checks don’t want to compete with accessories, they’re interesting enough on their own and that’s how Robert Pattinson plays it in new drama, Remember Me. The tabloid fave stars as Tyler Hawkins, a rebellious student trying to cope with his brother’s suicide and his parent’s subsequent divorce, who falls for the blonde charms of Ally Craig (Emile de Ravin, better known as teen mom Claire in Lost).

It marks a more mature role for the Twilight star who’s obviously trying to earn some credibility away from vamp-obsessed teenage girls and all that RPattz/ Team Edward crap. And his clothes reflect this cooler, more fresh, contemporary edge as he spends much of the movie in a plaid shirt (not by itself – this is PG-13 people). In fact, he seems to have a never-ending supply of them, whether blue, red, green, beige – he’s got the shirt to suit and he happily models a number of ways to wear them – with sleeves down or rolled up, buttons done or worn loose over a T-Shirt.

These styles allow him to look suitably laidback and studenty, a world away from the tortured Twilight hero and we think it looks good. So much so that we’ve picked out a number of cool plaid shirts to suit all budgets. So whether you want subtle shades or bright bolds, a western swagger or a mod sharpness, there’s plenty to choose from and they’re not going out of fashion anytime soon.