Quote Originally Posted by Laird_M View Post
snip....
Originally, the Scottish Tartan was a distinction of rank or position. It was not identified by weave but by the number of colours in the weave. If only one colour was used it depicted a servant, two, a farmer rank, three, an officer rank, five, a chieftain, six for a poet, and seven for a Chief. Eventually, clans or families adopted their own tartan, using a range of animal and earth colours which were frequently secret, only known to the weavers of the islands. They included yellows, blues, whites, greens, browns, reds, black and purple. Some say that a keen eye can identify the colour with a particular island, almost like a wine taster can identify the year and the vineyard. Obviously this restriction is not followed these days, and most tartans are just 'ancient', 'hunting' etc., so there is no reason why he can't wear his adopted clan's tartan.
Where on earth do you get this idea from,it's complete nonsense, whilst there are instances of finer cloth being used for wealthier people or perhaps an unusual colour for a special person, the idea that you can classify tartans or wearer of tartan in this way is just another one of the many romanticisms and are simply without credibility and shouldn't be broadcast as fact