Mixing tartans

[Guthrumironhead]

I'm looking for opinions on a tartan waistcoat I'm considering. I recently discovered Clan Donald ancestry and I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to have a waistcoat made in modern MacDonald of the Isles red for wear with my modern Guthrie kilt. I think they would look good together, but I realize this might not be the thing to do. I'll include samples of each for those who don't recall what the tartans look like.IMG_1694.jpgIMG_2332.jpg


Too much? Picture it with a black Argyll jacket and red and black diced hose...

[Macman]

I tend to look at it this way: am I a Guthrie or am I a MacDonald? I understand that some like to wear tartans from their family tree, but I think most of them just wear one clan at a time. I don't even mix my own clan tartans (Mackintosh).

[Manu]

I don't think mixing tartans is a good idea, as it sends a mixed message. I don't know the history behind the two tartans presented by you, but remember some clans had some rather negative things to say about other clans, which would make it weird if the Donalds and Guthries were at each other's throats. I'd just get another kilt in McDonald tartan =)

[Guthrumironhead]

Thanks for the thoughts. I especially like the idea of another kilt. 😁

[figheadair]

The mixing of tartans appears to have been common practice in the 18th century, the naming of tartans is a 19th cnetury thing. I'm a fan of mixing tartans in the right circumstances, evening dress etc.

[Jock Scot]

Mixing tartan of the same Clan is done by those that know what they are doing. The mixing of tartan from different Clans is best avoided these days.

[OC Richard]

For sure the above is all true, coming from guys who know what they're talking about.

Speaking only to imagery, yes 18th century images often show numerous tartans freely mixed. To the extent that The Highlanders Of Scotland can be relied on, this had fallen out of favour with civilian Highland Dress by the mid 19th century.

What I find interesting is how the military, more than the civilian world, has continued to mix tartans.

What I might observe is that people in Scotland and the USA might have different reasons for wearing tartan, and view notions of inheritance a bit differently. It's been made clear by various Scots here that clan/family inheritance is strictly through the male line. I live in a place where half the people are Spanish speakers and they include surnames from their various lineages, male and female, when giving their full names. Seems to me that many Americans of Scottish ancestry are somewhere in the middle, and feel it appropriate to wear tartans which have come down to them through a female line.

I had a great-great-great-great Grandmother named Catherine Stewart, and she is just as much my ancestor as her husband whose last name I bear.

About the notion of deciding which clan a person is, that would necessary in the days of lining up behind a Chief to march off to war. In today's world this is a moot point.

The irony in all of this is that the Picts are said to have traced through the female line.

Personally, I think those tartans you've chosen would great together, speaking only in visual terms.

Some imagery:

Mixing tartans, mid 18th century



Mixing tartans in the army, mid 19th century (the piper has jacket and bag-cover of Black Watch tartan, kilt and plaid of the regiment's music tartan, hose black and red diced, feather bonnet dicing red/white/blue)



Civilian mixing tartans, 1910



Royal mixing of tartans, second half of the 20th century



Mixing tartans in the army, 1994-present (kilt and plaid Cameron of Erracht, bag-cover Gordon, front drone ribbon MacKenzie Seaforth)


NB the piper is in the uniform of The Highlanders, not The Queens Own Highlanders as one might expect

[Jock Scot]

A lot of military tartans carried by the pipe bands these days carry mixed tartans due to various Regimental amalgamations that the British Government have seen fit to do. The Various tartans belong to the various Regiments joined together in the amalgamation. That way assorted Regimental ties, that the British Army deems as a very important factor----and they are not wrong--- with the troops with family connections that may go back many, many, generations. That way the newly formed Highland Gin and Tonics Regiment can boast its roots go back to 1692 when the present Colonel's distant relative was a drummer boy.

[OC Richard]

For sure the modern amalgamations has led to more tartan-mixing in the Highland regiments than one would see in the past.

But the pipers of The Black Watch wore mixed tartans long before they were amalgamated in 1881, and the pipers of The Scots Guards have long worn mixed tartans.

Seems to me that the 1881 amalgamations tartan mixing, and the modern amalgamations tartan mixing, were extensions of a thing that already existed in the army.

[CollinMacD]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but if you go back pre 1800's before Sir Walter Scott, mixed plaids were common, as they were not associated to family, but more to locality and just what the local weaver made. So the wearing of several plaids were common. However, when the plaid became associated to a family tartan, then the practice of mixed plaids/tartans seemed to disappear and only the Family Tartan was worn.

All the pre-18th century paintings I have examined have several plaids, Ranald MacDonald is a good example. (could be ancestor, have not got that far back yet)

Now I could be wrong, but I have read several books that state this, and would love to know the truth from our experience Scotsman....

So in today's world, unless you are a Jacobite Re-enactor, I think I would stay with my family tartan...probably stated the obvious, but thought work pointing out this point.

Cheers,