Quote Originally Posted by Tim Little View Post
On the one hand, it's wonderful to see people take to the idea of tartan as a medium for individual expression -- to create a unique work of art honoring one's heritage that can be bequeathed to future generations. Of course, it also natural that businesses and organizations may want a unique tartan as part of their "brand" identity, and obviously commercial ("fashion") tartans will be created wherever there is a market for them.

On the other hand are all these new tartan designs really a good thing? I feel one of the (many) positive aspects of tartan is the sense of camaraderie when a familiar sett is spotted across a crowded room. (Ah, Mackenzie! ) Does the proliferation of tartan design dilute this in any way? There are currently over 6000 tartans on the Register; at what point do we have enough?
I see it from both sides. On the one hand, yes, I agree that too many tartans just dilutes the whole concept. A tartan should, ideally, mean something to a group of people and is a wonderful way of identifying a fellow from your own group.

On the other hand, this works against people. They don't want to wear a tartan that 'belongs' to a group that they are not part of. Not everyone who wants to wear a tartan is a member of a Scottish clan or one of the other groups. These people may not want to wear a "universal" tartan that just anybody can wear; they want a tartan that gives them a sense of exclusive identity. So they're making their own unique ones that they can claim.

Does it make the tartan registry huge? Sure it does. But there are a LOT of people in this world. I'd rather see them developing their own group tartans than just wearing any old tartan willy-nilly.

So it boils down to this:

Which is worse? Having too many group tartans to keep track of? Or having less tartans, but having them lose their meaning because they're being worn by people who are not connected to the group?

Personally, I think I'd rather go with the former rather than the latter.