"Garish" Tartans

[Larry124]

I like brighter & lighter colors for nighttime - campfires, dim pubs, etc.

[Downunder Kilt]

MacLaren 1819 Variant by Wilsons of Bannockburn

[Bob C]

Clan Chattan. I have a necktie in this.

[Vegan Scot]

How does this one grab you?



Regards,
Rex.

Looks great Rex! I love how the orange warms the blue and the blue cools the orange. Soothing and eye-catching at the same moment.

[OC Richard]

Fortunately many of the ugliest tartans are bogus 19th century creations and can well be avoided on both historical and aesthetic grounds.

There are the ugly yellow creations of the Hay-Allan brothers, created as part of an elaborate faux-ancient manuscript hoax:





Then there's Buchanan, the result of a sloppy erroneous rendering in an 1843 book.

The real Buchanan tartan, as it appeared in 1831, is a normal symmetrical tartan:



But a slapdash 1843 illustration messed up the design, making it appear asymmetrical, which the weavers slavishly copied:



Due perhaps both to its garish colours and its strikingly asymmetrical design, this tartan lends itself to garish costumes:





though the yellow Hay-Allan tartans are not immune:



Here are some authentic 18th century tartans with bright hues, far superior in design to the Hay-Allan efforts:

[OC Richard]

In contrast to the bright hues of many 18th century tartans, recent "fashion" tartan design tends to be rather muted:

[ThinBlueLine]

OC Richard,

I actually like the asymmetrical Buchanan tartan over the older one. But that is just me.

[ForresterModern]

How about Frugal Corner's cheap knock-off of the beautiful Isle of Skye tartan, the "Bright Skye":

http://thefrugalcorner.3dcartstores....Skye_p_81.html

Might look good under a black light, although it doesn't really need it.

[triforme]

There's a Johnston variant from a publisher in Pennsylvania that's rather loud. I'd be interested in seeing it made up as a kilt, though.

Johnston Orange and Black

[Tobus]

Due perhaps both to its garish colours and its strikingly asymmetrical design, this tartan lends itself to garish costumes:

I'm not a huge fan of asymmetry in a tartan, but I do like the colors of that tartan. I'm firmly of the opinion that a good tartan draws the eye to it and makes the fellow wearing it stand out from the crowd. Scottish traditional culture being what it was, the idea was for men to be the ones who stand out and display their colors like peacocks while the women wore more drab colors. So it seems to me that the "garish" tartans do it the best.

What I like about the Buchanan, as opposed to (say) Loud MacLeod, is that the bright colors jump off the muted background colors. MacLeod is altogether too bright by itself. But Buchanan has a nice background color, and then the reds and yellows are accents. It's a nice look, in my opinion. Especially for a pipe band.