Would YOU wear another "clan's" tartan?

[MacKay71]

I voted for only one clan's tartans, clan MacKay. However, in reality I am also considering getting a clan MacLaren kilt because I am in Woodbadge in Boy Scouts.

[McClef]

I voted for any tartan that I like but that would be subject to any specific prohibitions.

Everyone has to decide for themselves.

[Sir William]

I only wear tartans to which I have some connection.

My kilts are in clan tartans to which I have a bloodline connection or an organization to which I belong (Leatherneck and SAMS).

I wear a tartan ties for clans that I have or had an affiliation with such as MacLaren for Boy Scouts/Woodbadge, Fraser for the 78th Highlanders, and MacKay for my wife's clan.

[LANCER1562]

I chose opotion #4 as I have two kilts to which I have a clan or organisation connection (Kerr Modern and U. S. Army) and two kilts in universal tartans because I liked how they looked (Black Stewart and Black Watch). If I ever get married again and my wife has a clan or district tartan, I would wear her tartan.

[12stones]

I currently don't own any clan tartans, though if one grabbed my fancy I'd wear it regardless of affiliation. I would, however, always be respectful of the tartan and be sure to try and honor the clan when wearing it. Just as I expect people to do when/if they wear Leatherneck tartan.

[Tobus]

I voted that I'd wear any tartan I have a bloodline to. I would also wear any fashion tartan I like, or a district tartan I am connected to (like the Texas bluebonnet tartan).

Because tartans have significance to family or location, I would feel odd wearing one that I had no connection with. Especially clan tartans. Just as I wouldn't go around wearing a jacket with someone else's name emblazoned on the back, I wouldn't wear another clan's tartan. It would be fraudulent of me to represent myself as someone I'm not.

But on the other hand, I will never understand the idea of only wearing ONE tartan. That's like only owning ONE color of pants. It would be quite a boring life, wearing the same pair of pants (or the same color) every single day. So in the interest of variety, I like the idea of owning several different tartans with different color schemes. But only those to which I have some sense of affiliation. I'd always want to be prepared to answer the question from someone on what the tartan is and why it's significant to me. Fortunately, there are lots of options to choose from that are not restricted.

[OC Richard]

I've played all my life in Pipe Bands and you wear whatever tartan the band uses. Many bands choose their tartans simply because they like the look of it.

Being an artist, for my own kilt I just choose a tartan I love. I don't care what name people call it.

Tartans originally were that way anyhow: weavers wove the most attractive designs they could come up with and no one at that time dreamed of giving the patterns any significance. Giving clan titles to various tarans at that time would be like us giving family names to the various patterns on the bottom of our shoes.

And this original attitude has returned full force in the Kilt Hire industry, with Scots favouring kilts in new "trade" tartans with obviously fanciful names like Spirit of Bannockburn and Auld Lang Syne.

Many of our "clan" tartans were originally just known by a number, or derived from military tartans, or invented by the Sobieskis, or taken from old Clan Chief portraits. (It goes like this: you take an old portrait of two MacDonalds who are wearing a half-dozen different tartans between them, you choose one of them and call it an official MacDonald tartan.)

And some of our tartans have been known by various names over the years, possibly none of them originally having any connection with the tartan.

[EagleJCS]

Even though I cannot prove a connection to Scotland, I currently have one kilt in Scott red (Scott being my surname). I chose option 1.

If I were to get another kilt, I would choose one of the other Scott tartans, or possibly the Kentucky tartan, since I'm a seventh-generation Kentuckian. If kilts were to become a uniform option in the Boy Scouts of America, I might then consider MacLaren (or whichever tartan they determine is appropriate - probably a corporate creation).

[ronstew]

For family-named tartans, I will only wear Stewart - which gives me dozens of options, happily. But I will wear other tartans, like Xmarks, Maple Leaf, British Columbia, etc.

Edit: I won't wear Stewart of Appin, Stewart of Galloway, Stewart of Bute, etc.

[Jack Daw]

I exercise a preference for wearing my MacIntyre clan tartans for clan and semi-formal functions. But, I enjoy wearing other tartans for informal wear. So far, most of my kilts are in tartans that represent a family connection or have a personal meaning to me; however, that won't rule out other tartans in the future.