recreating tartan from memory 40 years on

[OC Richard]

It was 1975. I was in High School. I had my first practice chanter and the COP book and the Wee Donald records and I had been teaching myself how to play for around a year. My father bought me my first set of pipes for my graduation present.

But what about a kilt??

I was living in the desert, the Coachella Valley, an actual desert with roadrunners and coyotes (not cartoon ones!) and sand dunes. There was nobody around who wore kilts or any such thing.

With our good ol' West Virginia do-it-yourself attitude, I went to the local fabric shop and bought some plaid wool. I was attracted to a certain plaid because it combined tan (we were, after all, in the middle of a desert) and a strong blue (my favourite colour) along with red, black, and white lines.

My grandmother sewed the thing. We had never seen a kilt in person, but were guided by some photos. It was my first kilt!

Not only do I not know where that kilt is, I don't seem to have any photos of my wearing it.

Just now I sat down with a tartan generator programme and experimented with variations on what I can remember of that plaid. Gaudy though it is, I have a certain nostalgia for it.

Here's what I came up with. The background should be a true tan (light khaki). The other colours are pretty close to what I recall, as is the pattern. I really like it! It would be great to have this woven! I'll call it for now 'Coachella'



(EDIT: I removed the first version with the incorrect background colour)

[KD Burke]

It definitely has a desert-y, sort of southwestern feel to it. I don't personally care for yellow, so I prefer the second iteration to the first.

I wonder, how it would look with a blue that was a bit lighter? Especially with a true tan base, I think the royal blue may be a bit too strident.

Of course if you like the look, go for it! Having commissioned three custom weaves myself, I understand that "because I like it" is a perfectly valid reason!

[OC Richard]

Thanks for the excellent suggestion! Yes indeed that original 'tartan' was strident, with a highly saturated blue and red on the tan ground.

I just now came up with a couple variants with a lighter blue, very 'southwestern' with the sand and sky...



This one has the blue very slightly darker... I think I like the one above a bit more, it has a more 'integrated' feel to it. Perhaps the black could turn to a pewter grey...



I wore this kilt for a while. I had enough fabric left over for a matching bagcover for my new pipes. Then I ordered some actual tartan (at the whopping price of $15/yard) in MacDonald of the Isles Hunting from The Scottish Shopper in Seattle and my grandmother made my 2nd kilt.

My father, as far as I know, was only kilted twice in his life, both times borrowing my "Coachella" or "Desert" kilt. Once was to an office party. The other time was when we both went to the Santa Monica Highland Games around 1976, I in my new MacDonald of the Isles Hunting kilt and my father in this "Desert" kilt. People kept stopping him and asking what tartan it was! He would smile and reply "Cook of Kintyre" (our family name is Cook, and our Cooks supposedly came from Arran or Kintyre according to family legend).

[Father Bill]

I have no idea what it is, but yes, I love it! It's a very pretty colour combination - of course, yellow and blue are complimentary colours, so of course it will grab the eye, and the black gives it definition.

Good grief, reading that, you'd be fooled into thinking I knew something about art!

[Tim Little]

Looks great, Richard; I hope you see this project through to completion!

[sailortats]

Richard, I do like this latest look and hope you are able to get it woven. However, if push comes to shove and you don't get it made you might want to look at the Navy Stewart tartan. It has some very similar colors. This is mine in PV from J. Higgins.

[Deesquared]

Wow, I love the lighter blue version. Very nice!

[Elizabeth]

A very fun exercise! I know you haven't asked for opinions but I like #3 the best. The first is too dark, the second is too light (baby blue?), and the third is just right. I like the idea of softening the black ever so slightly to see what it looks like.

[KD Burke]

I really like the variant with the lighter blue!

It appears that I may have inadvertently contributed something useful to the conversation. You may all rest assured that it will not happen again!

[rmccool]

For whatever my totally inexpert opinion might be worth... I think it's a great tartan, with either the "strident" blue or the more muted, lighter blue.

Given the growing "tradition" of having Dress, Hunting, Modern, Ancient, Weathered, etc. variations, why not have Coachella and Strident Coachella?

(Seriously, I think both variants look great.)