Click here to return to the
archive of articles I have written for the Scottish Banner.
NON-SCOTTISH TARTANS
©2007 Matthew A. C.
Newsome, GTS, FSA Scot.
published in the Scottish Banner, July
2007
Nearly two hundred years ago, the leading
producer of tartan cloth, Wilsons of Bannockburn, compiled their 1819 Key
Pattern Book. It contained approximately 250 tartans, less than one hundred
of which had names. Since that time, tartans have proliferated. Today,
tartans are numbered in the thousands, not the hundreds, and not all of them
are for Scots.
This increase in interest in tartans for the
non-Scot is interesting, and worthy of some consideration. Most tartans are
associated with the clans, families, and districts of Scotland. Any time you
see someone parading by in a tartan kilt, chances are he’s sporting his clan
tartan, or the tartan of the district his family hailed from. The idea of
wearing the tartan as a symbol of your heritage grew up in the tradition of
Scottish Highland Dress, and is today considered an integral part of that
tradition. More and more, however, it seems that those with no Scots heritage
are adopting the tartan tradition as their own.
Let’s get one thing straight. There is nothing
wrong with a non-Scot wanting to wear the kilt. I realize that there are some
out there who believe that one must have Scottish blood to be “entitled” to
wear the kilt. But since when did someone need an entitlement to wear a piece
of traditional clothing? Must one be Japanese to wear a kimono? Or German to
wear lederhosen?
Indeed, it is said that the Highlanders of old
would consider it an honor when visitors to their country adopted the Highland
dress. English poet John Taylor wrote of a hunting expedition to Braemar
undertaken in 1618 with these words: “For once in the yeere… many of the
nobility and gentry of the Kingdome for their pleasure doe come into these
Highland countries to hunt, where they conforme themselves to the habit of the
Highland men… As for their attire, any man of whatsoever degree that comes
among them must not disdaine to wear it; for if they doe then they will
disdaine to hunt, or to bring in their dogges; but if men be kinde to them,
and be in their habit, then are they conquered by kindnesse, and sport will be
plentifull.”
Many Scots (and those of Scottish heritage) are
flattered that a non-Scottish person would think so highly of his national
dress as to choose to wear it as his own. But what about the tartan? The
first “non-Scottish” tartans that arose were district tartans for regions
outside of Scotland where people of Scottish descent had settled. I am
thinking here of the tartans for Canadian provinces and American states,
designed to honor the Scottish heritage of the area and the contributions of
Scottish immigrants. So it makes sense that places like Nova Scotia, the
Carolinas, and Australia all have tartans. However, these tartans were not
designed only for use by residents with Scottish blood. These tartans are for
any citizen to wear.
In the mid-1990s one of the top Scottish tartan
producers, the House of Edgar, launched a range of tartans named for the Irish
counties. The Irish and the Highland Scots are cousins (with the Gaelic Scots
migrating from Ireland in the sixth century into what is now Argyll).
Although the kilt is not a part of the native Irish costume, there has been at
least some interest in Irish kilt wearing since the late nineteenth century.
And many Americans of Irish descent today proudly participate in many of the
Highland Games in North America right along side their Scottish neighbors. The
new Irish county tartans have encouraged many of Irish heritage to take up
wearing the kilt because they now feel they have a tartan “of their own.”
It must be said, of course, that unlike many of
the state and provincial tartans of North America, the Irish county tartans
have no official government approval, and are strictly speaking considered
“fashion” tartans. This seems to be the case with many non-Scottish tartans.
For instance, in 1994 Douglas Ikelman, an American of mixed Scottish and
German heritage, designed a “German National” tartan. The tartan has no
official standing with the German government, but it incorporates the symbolic
red, black and yellow of the German flag. For the German wishing to wear a
kilt and at the same time pay tribute to his own ethnicity, this tartan fits
the bill. Just this past year, Rocky Roeger, proprietor of USA Kilts in
Pennsylvania, was similarly inspired to design both a German Heritage tartan
and a German American tartan.
While these tartans were designed by Americans,
many European tartans were designed by those within the countries themselves.
There are a number of regional tartans for Brittany that are being marketed
and sold within that most Celtic region of France. There are tartans for
places in Austria that were based on cloth fragments found in archaeological
digs. Those who wear these tartans can feel a connection to their region’s
distant past.
It may seem as if most of the non-Scottish
tartans being designed today are regional, but one company is seeking to
change that trend. The Welsh Tartan Centre, based in Cardiff, is producing a
range of tartans designed for Welsh family names. If you are an Evans,
Davies, Griffiths, Powell or Llewellyn, you now have your own tartan – or at
least one designed for your family name.
These tartans are new designs, and are the
creations of a private company seeking to have a unique product to bring to
market. Some are turned off by this fact. However, truth be told, two
hundred years ago you could say the same thing about many of the Scottish
tartans that we now regard as traditional. Our clan tartans did not come down
to us from heaven, presented by God to a Scottish Moses on the top of Ben
Lomond! Rather many were originally commercial designs created by the
Scottish mills.
Centuries from now, will these Welsh family
tartans be regarded as a traditional part of Welsh heritage? Only time will
tell. Keep in mind that the Welsh have no native tartan tradition. The Welsh
Tartan Centre is taking a Scottish custom and giving it a Welsh flavor.
What do I think of this proliferation of
non-Scottish tartans? I see no problem with it, per se, so long as
people are not misinformed. There is a temptation to justify these
non-Scottish tartans by inventing a “history” for them that does not exist.
If one were to suggest that the Welsh or the Irish had a “clan tartan” system
hundreds of years ago, that would be fraudulent. People need to be aware that
this is a new phenomenon. As with any other young tradition, it is the people
that will ultimately decide its fate!
