These not only included names of Highland clans, but also town names, and some fancy names to boot. The names were not meant to be representative in any way -- they were there as a sales tool, to identify one tartan pattern from another.
In Wilsons' Key Pattern Book of , some tartans are included, about of which were given names. These were not only tartans of Wilsons' designs, but patterns that they had collected from all over Scotland. In the early nineteenth century, the idea began to gel that the names borne by the tartans represented actual connections to these clans. Scots expatriates who grew up outside of the Highland line began to get interested in preserving Highland culture. It was assumed that tartans had always been named and these represented actual affiliations.
In the Highland Society of London wrote to the clan chiefs asking them to submit samples of their clan tartans. Many chiefs had no idea what "their clan tartan" was supposed to be and so either wrote to tartan suppliers such as Wilsons, or asked the older men of their clan if they recalled any particular tartan being worn. All the clan chiefs were asked to come out to greet the King in their "proper clan tartan. Many new tartans were no doubt created, or renamed for the occasion.
From this point on, however, the idea was firmly established that in order to even be a proper tartan, it had to be a named tartan. The story of the development of tartan lore over the course of the nineteenth century is long and complicated, and beyond the scope of this brief introduction.
Tartan is sometimes differentiated from another with the same name by the label dress or hunting. Dress tartans are based on the earasaid tartans worn by Highland women in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dress tartans tend to be made by replacing a prominent color with the color white.
They are commonly used today in Highland dancing. Hunting tartans are also a Victorian conception. Despite the name, hunting tartans have very little to do with actual hunting. Mourning tartans, though quite rare, are associated with death and funerals.
They are usually designed using combinations of black and white. Tartan has also been used by corporations in advertising campaigns. British Airways used a tartan design as part of its ethnic tailfin re-branding. This design, Benyhone from Scottish Gaelic: "Mountain of the birds" was one of the most widely used designs, being applied to 27 aircraft of the BA fleet.
Clever Victorian entrepreneurs not only created new tartans, but new tartan objects called tartanware. Tartan was incorporated in an assortment of common household objects, such as snuffboxes , jewellery cases, tableware, sewing accessories, and desk items.
Tourists visiting the Scottish Highlands went home with it, and Scottish-based businesses sent tartanware out as gifts to customers. Today tartanware is widely collected in England and Scotland. In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, tartan-clad garments featured in fashion catalogues. By then, tartan had shifted from being mainly a component of men's clothing to become an important part of women's fashion.
In consequence of its association with the British aristocracy and military, tartan developed an air of dignity and exclusivity.
Because of this, tartan has made reappearances in the world of fashion several times. For instance, tartan made a resurgence in its use in punk fashion. In the late s, punk music was a way for youth in the British Isles to voice their discontent with the ruling class. The unorthodox use of tartan, which had long been associated with authority and gentility , was then seen as the expression of discontent against modern society.
In this way tartan, worn unconventionally, became an anti-establishment symbol. Depending upon how "different tartan" is defined, it has been estimated that there are about 3, to 7, different tartans, with around new designs being created every year. With four ways of presenting the hues in the tartan—"modern", "ancient", "weathered", and "muted" colors—there are thus about 14, recognized tartan variations from which to choose.
The 7, figure above includes many of these variations counted as though they were different tartans. Until the late 20th century, instead of a central, official tartan registry, several independent organisations located in Scotland, Canada, and the United States documented and recorded tartans. In the 's, a Scottish society called the Scottish Tartans Society now defunct was created to record and preserve all known tartan designs.
The society, however, ran into financial troubles in about the year , and folded. The aim of the Register is to provide a definitive and accessible resource to promote and preserve tartans. It also aims to be the definitive source for the registration of new tartans that pass NAS criteria for inclusion. On the Register's website users can register new tartans for a fee , search for and request the threadcounts of existing tartans and receive notifications of newly registered tartans.
One criticism of the SRT and NAS's management of it is that its exclusivity, in both cost and criteria, necessarily means that it cannot actually achieve its goals of definiteness, preservation and open access.
The current version of the STA's ITI, for example, already contains a large number of tartans that do not appear in the SRT, and the gulf will only widen under current policy.
Since the Victorian era , authorities on tartan have stated that there is an etiquette to wearing tartan, specifically tartan attributed to clans or families. This concept of the entitlement to certain tartans has led to the term of universal tartan , or free tartan , which describes tartan which can be worn by anyone.
In the same line of opinion, some tartan attributed to the British Royal Family are claimed by some to be "off limits" to non-royals. Even so, there are no rules on who can, or cannot, wear a particular tartan. Note that some modern tartans are protected by trademark law, and the trademark proprietor can, in certain circumstances, prevent others from selling that tartan.
The "Burberry Check", first designed in early 's, is an instantly recognizable tartan that is very well known around the world and is an example of a tartan that is protected. Many books on Scottish clans list such rules and guidelines. One such opinion is that people not bearing a clan surname, or surname claimed as a sept of a clan, should not wear the tartan of their mother's clan. This opinion is enforced by the fact that in the Scottish clan system, the Lord Lyon states that membership to a clan technically passes through the surname.
This means that children who bear their father's surname belong to the father's clan if any , and that children who bear their mother's surname her maiden name belong to their mother's clan if any. Also, the Lord Lyon states that a clan tartan should only be worn by those who profess allegiance to that clan's chief.
Some clan societies even claim that certain tartans are the personal property of a chief or chieftain, and in some cases they allow their clansfolk "permission" to wear a tartan.
According to the Scottish Tartans Authority —which is closely associated with the Scottish tartan industry—the Balmoral tartan should not be worn by anyone who is not part of the British Royal Family. Even so, some weavers outside of the United Kingdom ignore the "longstanding convention" of the British Royal Family's "right" to this tartan. The highly ornamented leather sporran worn in front of the kilt served as a purse completed the ensemble.
The women of the clan wore a curraichd of linen over their heads which fastened under their chin. The tonnag was a small square of tartan worn over the shoulders, and the arasaid was a long self-coloured or tartan garment, which reached from the head to the ankles, pleated all round and fastened at the breast with a brooch and at the waist by a belt.
Early tartans were simple checks of perhaps only two or three colours. The colours were extracted mainly from dye-producing plants, roots, berries and trees local to a specific geographic area.
These simple checks or tartans were worn by the people of the district where they were made, and as such became the area or clan tartan. It is said that the weavers took great pain to give exact patterns of tartan by identifying each colour of every thread upon a piece of wood known as a maide dalbh, or pattern stick. An account from records how a housewife gave coloured wool to a weaver to make into cloth. She won her case and the naughty weaver was punished.
With the evolution of chemical dies, weavers were able to introduce more elaborate patterns including more vivid and varied colours. But what tartans are there for non-Scots, or if you've no connections with Scotland? Here are seven ideas for universal tartans that can be worn by everyone. And we'll save the best for last! Today some tartans are seen as universal, so anyone can wear these plaids whatever their background. Most famous is Royal Stewart tartan, originally designed for Queen Victoria.
Then there's Black Watch tartan, which now commemorates Scotland's most famous regiment. Other examples include Macleod Dress or 'Loud Macleod' to its fans. Lindsay which is so popular it's almost public property. Dress Stewart is much loved for womenswear. And Scotland Forever is Scotland's gift to the world. Lastly wait for it! Want to know why? The Royal Stewart tartan is the best-known plaid on the planet. Commoners soon highjacked the Royal Stewart plaid to show their royalist loyalty.
So the royal family later adopted the Balmoral tartan said to have been designed by Prince Albert which convention dictates is worn only by them and the Queen's piper! Nowadays Royal Stewart is the most widely produced tartan commercially thanks to its striking red colour scheme. No one thinks of it as even expressing royalism.
It's simply the most widely worn tartan in the world.
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