Who invented the tartans

These were long and flowing but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure into folds. Over a gown reaching to the ancles, and generally embroidered, they wore large mantles of the kind already described, and woven of different colours. Their ancestors wore plaids of many colours, and numbers still retain this custom. Their predecessors used short mantles or plaids of divers colours sundry waies divided; and amongst some, the same costume is observed to this day; but for the most part now they are browne, more near to the colour of the hadder heather ; to the effect when they lie amongst the hadder the bright colour of their plaids shall not betray them.

Scottish Mercenaries of This serves them for a veil and covers both head and body. Tartans and Highland Dress. Telfer Dunbar. Highland Soldiers of E: brian tartanambassador. Cookie Policy Site Map. Where did Tartan come from? Tartan — An amazingly complex design One of the problems with charting the birth and progress of tartan is that the very word itself is relatively modern and restricted to the English language.

Her photograph shows broad stripes of purply-brown thread with the plaid formed by pinstripes in no fewer than five other colors: light and dark blue, red, white, and black. To make the vest, the tailor joined pieces of this stuff together with pale blue yarn, edged the vest with two narrow plaited cords, and added a pair of buttons covered with the same pale blue yarn. That sample has been rewoven in modern times and offers a remarkably sophisticated design that is the equal of many asymmetric tartans of the 20th century.

Hami plaids might have as many as six colors, therein resembling the modern Scottish rather than the ancient Hallstatt way of doing things and the regular combination of plaids and twills in the same cloth and the similar play of wides and narrows in the plaids move us into a bolder zone where it's harder to imagine the sum total as accidental.

In conclusion, the vast majority of historians have assumed that the idea of plaids tartans was relatively new to Scotland in the seventeenth century. Archaeology tells a different story. Many historians have assumed that the idea of plaids tartans was relatively new to Scotland in the seventeenth century.

The Celts have been weaving plaid twills tartans for three thousand years at least. For a European perspective on the Celts and their weaving of tartan - see the article C elts in this History section. Members Login. The Birth of Tartan "The Celts have been weaving plaid tartan twills for three thousand years at least" Until relatively recently, it was assumed by most historians, academicsand commentators that tartan was a Johnnie-come-lately.

Dressed to Kilt photos Lloyd Bishop. Donations If you would like to give a one-off gift then please use the link below. Contact admin tartansauthority. Tartan was so identified with the Highland Gael that after the Battle of Culloden in , the British government, in the Act of Proscription, forbade the wearing of tartan among other things in the Highlands, in an attempt to suppress the rebellious Scottish culture.

By the end of the eighteenth century, large scale commercial weavers had taken up the production of tartan. This firm was begun sometime around and became quite successful, being the sole supplier of tartan cloth to the Highland Regiments. Because they were producing cloth in such large quantities, they developed standard colors and patterns early on. At first they assigned numbers to identify the patterns, but soon began to give them names. 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.