James brings up another point. What one person referrs to as a "Dress" tartan is not necessarily what another one means by that term.

Technically a dress tartan is a varaition of the clan's normal tartan with more white woven into it. As I've already said, there are exceptions to this rule.

However, some people, in common parlance, refer to any non-green tartan as "dress." So, the standard red Fraser tartan is often called "Dress Fraser." The red Galloway tartan is often called "Dress Galloway." These are two common examples used even by the tartan producers and retailers themselves. However, the trend continues even beyond that. Some people call any red tartan a "dress" tartan, when there is a hunting alternative. So they will speak of Dress Ross v. Hunting Ross, or Dress MacIntosh v. Hunting MacIntosh, even though neither of these tartans is a dress tartan at all.

So, if you take "dress" to mean any brightly colored tartan, then all this talk about it being derived from arissaides, used by dancers, etc., really has no bearing. But keep in mind, then, that what you call a "dress" tartan is not truly a dress tartan, in the strict sense of the word.

Aye,
Matt