Scotland-America Tartan to Celebrate 250 Years of Cultural Ties

[cessna152towser]

Announced on BBC Scotland this morning.
Might not be accessible to some of our members so I will quote the first few paragraphs and provide a link to the full article.

Students at a Scottish university have been asked to design a tartan to mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence.
Heriot-Watt University was invited by the Scottish government to create the tartan to symbolise historical and cultural ties between the countries.
Students from Heriot-Watt's school of textiles and design in Galashiels have submitted ideas, with the winning design to be revealed in the summer.
The design will be registered with the Scottish Tartan Authority as the official tartan of America250 - the group organising anniversary events in the US.
The first run will be produced at Lovat Mill in Hawick, with the winning student travelling to Washington DC to present the tartan.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0wdqevwdpo

[OC Richard]

Rocky beat them to it- though not surprising that there will be multiple tartans with versions of that name.

https://www.usakilts.com/americas-25...cas-250th.html

This tartan, and all the other USA-themed tartans, demonstrate how daunting it is to create an attractive tartanlike tartan when limiting yourself to red, white, and blue.

[kilted redleg]

Should be interesting the color palate they come up with, as the article states the contributions the Scots gave to America will also be considered. To begin with 10 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Scottish descent, with two Wilson and Witherspoon fresh off the boat from Scotland. Think of all the things people who trace their roots back to Scotland have given this country. Should be an interesting color pattern. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

[jsrnephdoc]

Rocky beat them to it- though not surprising that there will be multiple tartans with versions of that name.

https://www.usakilts.com/americas-25...cas-250th.html

This tartan, and all the other USA-themed tartans, demonstrate how daunting it is to create an attractive tartanlike tartan when limiting yourself to red, white, and blue.

Continuing with historical references, I'm inferring that your opinion might be along the line of a fictitious question preferred to President Lincoln's new widow:

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play."

Returning to serious inquiry, why do you classify these tartans as "tartanlike?"

[OC Richard]

why do you classify these tartans as "tartanlike?"

Maybe I didn't word things clearly, I was saying that it's challenging to design a tartanlike tartan when being limited to the specific shades of red, white, and blue used in the US flag, especially if used in three equal amounts.

By "tartanlike" I mean both the sense of looking like cloth (rather than a graphic design) and the sense of feeling within the aesthetic parameters of traditional tartans.

The failure concerning both points is what makes most of the Allen Brothers' original designs stand out as untartanlike, ungainly, and simpleminded.

Going outside of the flag-colours boundaries, say, using two or three shades of blue, would allow some sophistication/subtlety to be introduced into the design.

And not limiting yourself to three equal amounts of red, white, and blue opens up far more attractive options.

Being tartanlike means the designer having the only goal being creating attractive cloth, and not being constrained by non-tartan considerations such as needing to resemble a certain flag.

[jsrnephdoc]

Being tartanlike means the designer having the only goal being creating attractive cloth, and not being constrained by non-tartan considerations such as needing to resemble a certain flag.

I'm still puzzled. Can fabric be tartanlike, but not a true tartan? Or can a design that's not generated fabric be a tartan or is it only tartanlike?

There are aspects of Scottish tartans that are considered elemental but actually are not universal; e.g., that the design should be symmetrical on both axes, or that the stripes should be of different width.

Then there's the association with families, certainly not ancient, yet very common.

Then there's the complexity of the design, and of course there are no absolutes there, either.

Then there's the notion of symbolism in the design, presumably absent from ancient or more recent but traditional Scottish family tartans, but we read in many places that the color red was used to symbolize wealth or social stature even centuries ago.

Then there's the notion of a design being commemorative. Not traditional, but now VERY common. Done for Royal coronations, the deaths of royal princesses, or even to raise funds for charities run by the nurses of the Scottish National Health Service.

I have one kilt made from a commemorative tartan (the "Lunar" tartan, of which Barb Tewksbury is quite fond, and to which she contributed a symbolic change in the color palette). Should that be considered "tartanlike" rather than a "tartan?"

Then there are the many designs created by or cooperatively WITH fashion houses by Lochcarron. Are they by definition "tartanlike" rather than "tartan?" They come off the same looms as many "traditional" tartans (one definition of which might be that they were once woven by Wilsons of Bannockburn, whose motive was likely entirely commercial rather than historical preservation.

Could it devolve to something as simple as "was the design ever used to create actual fabric?"

Or, is the most appropriate descriptor the oft quoted "no generalization is worth a damn, including this one?"

I don't know that history provides much guidance. For example, what motivated the spouses of centuries-ago sheepherders to combine the locally-available pigments as they did making woolen fabric to keep their husbands warm at night but keep their weapons available during the daytime, other than just "those were the colors available?"

I see that Peter MacDonald has read your post. Perhaps he might offer an opinion.

And, please understand that I'm not trying to be obnoxious, just trying to learn.

[Jock Scot]

Oh for goodness sake! Do we really need more tartan designs?

[OC Richard]

...the association with families...

Recall that with what I suppose could be called the "traditional Clan tartans" the tartans came first, mostly Wilsons designs. These were created with the only goals being to look attractive and to sell.

These tartans were originally known by number, or given fanciful marketable names like "Rob Roy" and "Robin Hood".

It was later, when people were gearing up for the 1822 Royal visit, that these numbered tartans began being adopted by various Clans.

...the complexity of the design...there are no absolutes there...

Yes some of the old tartans were incredibly complex and some were quite simple. Yet between the overly intricate and the overly simplistic there's a happy middle ground where most tartans lie.

It art design the concept is called "scale". Put simply, the design that works on a penny and the design that works on a wall mural are going to be different because of the different sizes of format.

With tartan we're talking, in the main, the scale of a man's kilt.

Royal Stewart too small, too big, what the military considers just right.

...the notion of symbolism....the notion of a design being commemorative...

These are the sort of non-tartan considerations I was talking about.

To a Highlander in the old days the idea that the pattern of the tartan they were wearing symbolised something or commemorated something would be incomprehensible.

It's like somebody 300 years in the future imagining that the patterns on 20th century automobile tyres commemorated something.

It has been said that one cannot serve two masters. Tartans being the slave to resembling a flag, or being limited to a specific list of colours, impinges on the ability of the designer to make a nice tartan.

It's the modern "fashion" tartans, tartans designed to look attractive and for that purpose alone, that retain the original spirit of tartan design. An example is Edgar's "Hebridean" range of fashion tartans. (Oddly some traditional tartans appear among the new fashion tartans there.) https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...idean-tartans/

An interesting modern example of not putting the cart before the horse is what House of Edgar did in the 1980s. Their tartan designer came up with 32 lovely tartans, the colours and patterns chosen simply for attractiveness, and not symbolising anything.

These 32 tartans were then assigned to the various Irish Counties, resulting in Edgar's commercially successful Irish County tartans range. https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...ounty-tartans/

Now, each Irish County does have colours strongly associated with it in modern times, but the Edgar tartans paid no heed to these whatsoever.

Sometime later another designer came along and made 32 tartans slavishly copying these Irish County colours, these tartans being rather unattractive (as they must be) and having far less commercial success.

(Irish County GAA colours)

[jsrnephdoc]

Recall that with what I suppose could be called the "traditional Clan tartans" the tartans came first, mostly Wilsons designs. These were created with the only goals being to look attractive and to sell.

These tartans were originally known by number, or given fanciful marketable names like "Rob Roy" and "Robin Hood".

It was later, when people were gearing up for the 1822 Royal visit, that these numbered tartans began being adopted by various Clans.

The modern equivalent might be Lochcarron's relationships with "fashion" fabric and clothing design houses, where the only "symolism" might be the attribution to some "famous for being famous" celebrity, and I might go so far then as to say that all the permutations of "family" tartans ("weathered," "ancient," etc.) might be appropriately chastised as "tartan-like."

To a Highlander in the old days the idea that the pattern of the tartan they were wearing symbolised something or commemorated something would be incomprehensible.

It's like somebody 300 years in the future imagining that the patterns on 20th century automobile tyres commemorated something.

It has been said that one cannot serve two masters. Tartans being the slave to resembling a flag, or being limited to a specific list of colours, impinges on the ability of the designer to make a nice tartan.

Some fairly important people (such as the King, for example) have had tartans created purely for commemorative purposes. Perhaps even a BETTER example of that might be the "Nursing" tartan, created specifically using the color palette of the uniforms in the Scottish National Health Service, in hopes of raising money for charitable purposes. My and my wife's opinion of the latter is that it's quite lovely. Of course neither the royal commemorative tartans nor the Nursing Tartan are available, and perhaps THAT might qualify them for "tartan" rather than "tartan-like" status.

It's the modern "fashion" tartans, tartans designed to look attractive and for that purpose alone, that retain the original spirit of tartan design. An example is Edgar's "Hebridean" range of fashion tartans. (Oddly some traditional tartans appear among the new fashion tartans there.) https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...idean-tartans/

And, finally, I would argue that the mills that produce tartan today exist at least to a considerable extent because they can make MONEY selling what they produce, and that disparaging their motives if a pattern is made for commemorative purposes is no more "righteous" than weaving patterns and color palettes just because that's what vegetable dyes were locally available centuries ago. Tartans are treasured by affinity groups, be they military regiments, or royal families, or professions, or members of the Scottish diaspora with recognizable surnames, and there's nothing inherently "wrong" with a design that commemorates an occasion, especially if it's well thought out.

My best example of that is the "Lunar" tartan, of which I possess an example. My guess is that its commercial success (to the extent it's BEEN a commercial success) derives in part from the ascendency of what I call "grayscale" tartans offered by the hire shops in Scottish cities. However, to me it IS attractive, and its pattern has an evolutionary story that engages the curious. Its design was triggered by the Apollo moon landings. Barb Tewksbury has made many kilts from it, a fair number of those for people associated with NASA, but as a planetary geologist in her day-job, she objected to its color palette, because it contained a brown stripe, and she (correctly) pointed out that "there's no brown on the moon," triggering a re-design substituting gray for the brown.

And, the "story" doesn't end there. USA kilts commissioned a weaving a few years back, and IT incorporated Rocky's fondness for marled yarns. Barb objected to THAT as well, because there's no ATMOSPHERE on the moon, so the contrast between light and shadow is RAZOR sharp, and Rocky's marled yarns blurred those borders. So, Barb managed to get DC Dalgliesh to do a weaving before they went belly up using monochromatic yarns.

Of course, the tartan's symbolism suffers one other curiosity. The "Lunar 2" (and, I think, the original) feature a narrow but prominent RED stripe, which I've been told "symbolizes the rocket flame that propelled the Apollo astronauts to lunar orbit." I've been to the visitors observation area at Cape Canaveral a time or two, and I've never seen a rocket head skyward trailing a RED stripe! I suspect that stripe is red because the designer thought red paired better with black than did a yellow-gold

In the end, probably the commonalities in good tartan design include stripes of different widths and several colors or shades of colors, intersecting symmetrically (although, of course, there are asymmetric tartans), with their pattern repeating often enough that one can make a kilt from them (although there are tartans with sett sizes so large that making an attractive kilt from them is difficult undertaking).

[OC Richard]

I'm not saying that commemorative tartans don't exist, or that people nowadays aren't putting specific colours in their designs due to non-aesthetic reasons.

Nor am I disparaging any of that stuff.

I'm just saying that these things are alien to the original/traditional aesthetics of tartan design.

I can visualise somebody going back in time and interviewing the Wilsons in 1770.

"So, Mr Wilson, what does the red in your Royal Stewart tartan symbolise?"

"What?"

"It must symbolise something. Does it commemorate the blood spilled in the Stuart cause?"

"Whatever are you on about?"

"What about the white lines? Surely you put them in the tartan to symbolise the white cockades worn by the Jacobites in the late rebellion?"

"What nonsense. The red is there because it's red and the white because it's white! Now please go away."