TARTAN HISTORY & HOW TO WEAR A KILT

Wearing The Tartan
Highland Dress has become the distinctive costume of the whole of Scotland, despite its suppression as a symbol of Scottish independence. Its components were drawn from elements in daily use within the Highlands, but these have become rationalised for use in modern life and tailored fashions.

It was the Victorian age that transformed costume and Scottish symbols in general, but there would have been little sentimentality for early Highland dress as it was a practical matter and a fact of life. With this in mind, it is good to visualise the practical and economic realities that the earlier forms represent.

The Scottish regiments continued to use Highland dress since they were government forces, and their forms of dress influenced the creation of the modern form, practical for military tailoring and evening dress. The lowland forces, for instance, adapted trews into a military uniform employing tartan.

The wealthy classes, apart from their own military connections, often had a Highland background or property. It was then Queen Victoria's royal patronage that resolved the developing elements into a regular form for use in society.

Reading the Tartan
A tartan pattern emerges out of a single list of coloured threads called a thread count.

Reading a tartan requires a little practice and involves finding two unique points within the pattern called the pivots.

Tartans consist of broader bands of colour called the under check which are often decorated or embellished with narrower lines of colour called the over check.

Once the basic possibilities are understood, one can better appreciate designs that combine and extend the simple ideas. The largest group of tartan uses the three-colour design of Black Watch as its basis.

Tartan Weaving in Highland Life
Originally the only recording activity would be similar to those in other cultural activities such as musicians and storytellers. Patterns would spread by diffusion according to interest and popularity.

Recording would be through memory, cloth samples and possibly threads tied to sticks (used warp beams). Types of tartan would not exist, and the local wool and dyes available would limit the ambition of a weaver and wearer to certain colours.

Rescuing Tartan from Extinction
After the rebellion of Charles Edward Stuart, Highland expression and the Tartan in particular was prohibited by law. The growing Highland Regiments were amongst the few allowed to wear it, largely in new patterns.

Weaving became commercial at Wilson's of Bannockburn where fortunately many older designs survived on their books. As tartan became legal, the gentry responded to the impending loss of Highland traditions and sponsored a number of institutions, fashions and research activities that coincided with a burgeoning Romantic movement which was driven on by Sir Walter Scott's writing.

Not only were many traditional tartan designs "saved" through these recordings but also many invented patterns, new colourings and new concepts such as Clan Tartans arose. Most traditional tartan patterns became fixed and named at this time.

The Structure of the Scottish Tartans World Register

The Reason Why :-
The medium for recording tartan in the nineteenth and twentieth century became the published word particularly with coloured printing of tartans. This provided many sources with different stories, names and provenances for what were the same tartan designs.

By the nineteen sixties there were many tartan lists but were the work of individuals, collectors and company records. These were to be found worldwide. The need for a centralised point where these lists can be collected, researched and referenced in one database was obvious.

The Scottish Tartans World Register has been created to provide the just such an instrument. It is a non-authoritive body where anyone can post and check both new and old tartans. Its public nature provides one of the first steps to establishing the copyright of a design.

Services and Products to Support the Use of Tartan
The Scottish Tartans World Register is the trading name of a registered company called Tartan Registration Limited, a recognised charity. It offers services and products that help in the accurate and non-trivial use of tartan whilst maintaining the ' Register' itself.

Tartan History - Courtesy Of - Tartans Of Scotland
www.tartans.scotland.net

Wrapping and Wearing the Great Kilt
(Also known as the Great Plaid, the Breacan Feile and the Feiladh Mor)
Pleating with Lots of Floor Space

You will need enough space to spread the plaid in front of you. Do not worry too much about laying out the entire length (you can deal with that as you pleat), but do spread the full width. The fabric is pleated along its length.

Measure with your hands from hip bone to hip bone and transfer this measurement to the plaid. This is one of the two aprons and will not be pleated.

Starting from the end of the apron, pull the material towards you at the centre and adjust, at each end, the pleat you have formed.

The depth of this pleat is up to you. The wider you make the pleat, the less work you have to do at this stage. You could aim to form the pleat where each sett repeats itself.

Continue until you have pleated most of the material - leaving, unpleated, sufficient material to form the second apron.

Placing the Belt Wrapping the Kilt.

You are now going to place your belt so that it will be in the correct position when you lie down on the plaid. Start by folding the aprons loosely over the pleats so that you will more easily be able to slide the belt underneath.

Now measure, with your hands, from the floor to your waist, transfer this measurement to the plaid and slide the belt under the plaid at the point to which you have measured. The buckle is on the right side as you look at the illustration.

Fold back the aprons and lie down on the plaid so that the back of your knees are in line with the selvage edge.

Fold the aprons across your hips - first the right apron and then the left.

Now you can fasten your belt and in the next page we will describe how you deal with the material above the belt.

Adjusting the Plaid Above the Belt

By this stage you will have belted the plaid around your waist - having kilted or pleated it using one of the two methods we have already described.

The plaid above the belt should be allowed to hang loose below your waist ... ... it will hang down well below the end of the kilt - perhaps to your ankles, depending on the width of the plaid and your height.

You now have two options. Either you can wear the plaid to keep the elements at bay, wrapped over both shoulders (over your head if you have enough material), or you can adjust it so that it hangs from one shoulder, loosely down your back. This is what we are now going to describe.

You are going to start by tucking the hanging flaps out of the way, into your belt. Lift the flap at your right side and twist it several times.

Take this twisted end around your right side and tuck it into your belt. Repeat the whole process with the flap hanging down at your left side.

The further round the waist you take the twisted end of the plaid the shallower will be the pocket which is created. Our model is a working ghillie and wears his without the familiar large "pockets" because he is trying to get rid of as much surplus material as possible.

To create the fuller pockets the twisted ends should be tucked into the belt nearer the front. You should experiment until you get the appearance you like best.

Now find the centre of the end of the plaid which is hanging down behind you. Bring this material up over your left should and pin it just below your shoulder bone.