Quote Originally Posted by Nighthawk View Post
Exactly. They were regional before the 1800's. And they were only regional because the various clans living there used the natural dyes that they had on hand- and therefore used whatever happened to be most prevelent for their region! Which I also suspect may have been part of the justification for the idea of tartan as clan identifiers. BUT that's just speculation. I have no facts to back that thought up.
It's true early tartan would have been made from whatever dyes were available locally. Kilts were tartan, or solid, and members of the clan could where different tartans, or none at all.
It would be more accurate,though perhaps not entirely so, that clan identification or allegiance was historically made by the type of plant one stuck in his cap. Not until the industrial revolution,and the invention of the loom, was it possible to produce the same pattern over and over again with any sort of reliability. An early kilt maker started giving his patterns clan names, and bada boom, clan tartan was born. Victoria liked her Highland chiefs to visit in their 'clan' tartan, and soon they all started looking for it. To be sure, that makes many of them near 200 years old, but there's no record or historical basis for clan tartan. Tradition,yes, history, no.
Anywho, it is tradition, and if the Scots only wear one tartan, so be it.