The plaid era, Barney said in a 1972 interview with New York magazine, “didn’t exactly go over. Had to have a few sales to reduce the backstock." In truth, Raoul not only put the company in jeopardy, he nearly landed himself and his father in jail. Justice Department investigations revealed that Raoul’s cabal of designers were taking pay-offs from the Plaid industries; the resulting scandal - dubbed Plaidola by the press - put forty men in the pen, and closed the doors of half a dozen houses. Fines and legal fees forced the Dorcus company to close its doors for a while.

But Raoul, ever looking towards the future, realized that the company still had life. He ran ads in the New York press to sell the remaining stock of plaid, including a fictitious address. “They will come for the plaid to spit upon it,” he reportedly said. “Finding no plaid, they will want plaid - if only to hate it. Then we open the doors of the store and satisfy their hate anew. Or, we bring out some nice houndstooths. I haven't decided. Either one is fine.”