The end of traditional tartan - a personal view

[Tobus]

If nothing else, this thread reinforces what I said earlier. Weavers need to educate people about their products and practises so the consumer will know exactly what he is paying for, and why. There is a lot of confusion about this, as well as disagreement on terminology. How the heck is a layman supposed to make an informed decision with this?

I'm probably an exception in the kilt world. If I want a custom tartan, I'll pay top dollar to have it made. But I lack information from the industry. Why do they not have a central source or organisation that will be their advocate, as has been done for Harris Tweed?

[figheadair]

I'm probably an exception in the kilt world. If I want a custom tartan, I'll pay top dollar to have it made. But I lack information from the industry. Why do they not have a central source or organisation that will be their advocate, as has been done for Harris Tweed?

There is work going on in the background to try and co-ordinate this but it's not quite that simple, principally because there's no collective agreement amongst the remaining Scottish weavers about a number of important issues. One of the things that the majority of the trade would like is to see the granting of geographic protection to the term [I]Scottish Tartan/I] to parallel /Harris Tweed. That of course would mean that cloth by the likes of Marton Mills would no longer qualify.

[Orionson]

Dalgleish is not the only weaver

Secondly there are the concerns raised here and in the Selkirk press about the future of D C Dalgleish. I do think we need to be clear here that Dalgleish is not the only company weaving worsted tartan cloth with a woven selvedge. They were just about the only company that did not have a minimum weaving length and would sell retail, and that meant that you could order a single kilt length of cloth. However get 4 people together who all want the same tartan and any number of weavers will weave for you, bespoke, your choice of colours etc. I have recently seen some cloth woven by Andrew Elliot ltd, very beautiful it was too and with the sort of selvedge that Peter would be happy to call a selvedge. But I could not order from them as I am not a trade customer, then that is why I go to my Kilt maker.[/QUOTE]

Hi, Harvey. Two things strike me in your post, both emboldened above. Firstly, Andrew Elliot Ltd. (Robin) don't have a minimum order requirement. I am not a "trade customer" either and Robin was more than happy to deal with me directly. He invited me down to the Mill in Selkirk to discuss the project and I will be going back to watch the cloth magically appear on the loom.

The Andrew Elliot Mill is only a few short miles away from Sir Walter Scott's beautiful home, Abbotsford House and I plan to spend a couple of days taking it all in. It seems appropriate and I think Sir Walter would be the first to approve the custom weaving of this magical circa 1800 MacDuff Tartan.

http://www.scottsabbotsford.com/


https://plus.google.com/photos/10032...22955015887777

[TheOfficialBren]

Traditional Weaver's League. British Weaver's Co-Op. Tartan and Tweed Regulation Commission. Wool Merchant's Association.

Imaginative entities that could theoretically handle all of these concerns, keep prices reasonable, and preserve the traditions without infringing upon outsiders.

[Calgacus]

Yes, Harvey, where to begin. I appreciate many if not all of your points. At the risk of introducing a bit of satire (always a dangerous move), this thread brings to mind a recent Nike commercial.

I do appreciate the esthetics of a traditional woven selvedge. But if somebody is close enough to my husband's knees to tell the difference. . . well, that's just too close!

Humour appreciated, and I liked the commercial.

On the other hand, I have a friend who never buys anything which he sees advertised. His logic is that if it needs advertised then it clearly isn't good enough to sell itself and is therefore not worth buying.

It's quite hard to argue against that.

[RockyR]

There is work going on in the background to try and co-ordinate this but it's not quite that simple, principally because there's no collective agreement amongst the remaining Scottish weavers about a number of important issues. One of the things that the majority of the trade would like is to see the granting of geographic protection to the term [I]Scottish Tartan/I] to parallel /Harris Tweed. That of course would mean that cloth by the likes of Marton Mills would no longer qualify.

Or Strathmore, or Batley or some of the Scottish mills (who I won't name) who outsource some of their cloth to English mills.