Dress Tartans?

[Patty Logan]

Hi, does anybody know the history of how dress tartans came about? Was it for women to wear for there dresses, was it for wear a dressier event like a black tie event? Or was it made for Highland Dancers? Interested to know the history behind it. Thanks!

[Jock Scot]

As far as I am aware dress tartans are/were worn for formal dress occasions. Not all Clans have a dress tartan, but I do know that male MacLeod of Harris Clan tartan wearers used to (perhaps still do?) wear kilts of the Macleod of Lewes, aka loud MacLeod, for formal events. My Grandfather used to, as well as some of my uncles. From what I remember, those kilts were made of a lighter weight cloth. I am not sure if anyone bothers these days.

[Liam]

Here is a link to the types of tartans. It suggests tha the dress tartan originated as a woman’s version of tartan and is primarily used by female highland dancers.
https://www.acornfabrics.com/blog/wh...-types-tartan/

[Patty Logan]

https://www.acornfabrics.com/blog/wh...-types-tartan/

Thanks for the link!

[Panache]

From the Scottish Tartans Museums website:

"Hunting and Dress tartans also cause much confusion among the uninitiated. These names also refer to color changes, not to any kid of actual usage. Dress tartans are based on the old arasaide tartans worn by women in the Highlands of the 17th and 18th centuries. These tartans had a white base. Today's dress tartans are made by replacing one of the prominent field colors of tartan with white. These are used most frequently in dancing, but are often seen in formal and even casual occasions. There is no rule that says one has to wear a dress tartan to a formal occasion. Most men do not."

As someone in the Red Thistle Dancers, a Scottish dance performance group that does Scottish Country Dance and Highland Dancing, (and on the group's costume committee) I can attest that at a distance some tartans can look rather "muddled" (for lack of a better term) from far away. For instance for a lot of versions of the Black Watch tartan, the various stripes don't look very distinct from a distance (and they all merge into black on video!). The white really helps the tartans stripes "pop" at a distance. If you are trying to impress a judge at a competition or an audience at a performance, one should be dressing for success. The brighter colors definitely add to one's costume from a distance.

Cheers

Jamie