"Garish" Tartans

**ThinBlueLine** · 13th July 10, 10:58 AM

triforme,

That reminds me of Halloween.

**English Bloke** · 13th July 10, 11:18 AM

Some would say my Bruce Modern is a bit on the bright side compared to some others. I'd be inclined to disagree obviously.

**Barb T** · 13th July 10, 04:04 PM

I'd have to say that I've been handed a few tartans over the years that I've thought could gag a maggot. At the risk of causing a bit of a kerfuffle, I have to say, though, that they all looked fine once they were made into kilts. I can't think of a single one that looked horrid once it was made into a kilt, even if it seemed "unfortunate" in the bolt.

**CameronCat** · 13th July 10, 04:54 PM

Sorry, late to the party as always, but I'd offer our Cameron tartan as a bit of an eyeful with its green-on-orange. One kilt?...not too bad, as Barb says.

A field-full, as we had at last year's Gathering in Lochaber?... a bit much.

(I haven't yet mastered that photo trick of "put the picture over THERE so it shows up HERE" but any search should bring up a sample.)

JT

**OC Richard** · 14th July 10, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by Barb T.

I can't think of a single one that looked horrid once it was made into a kilt, even if it seemed "unfortunate" in the bolt.

One exception, maybe, is when a perfectly good tartan is spoiled due to which portion of the tartan is chosen for repetition across the pleats.

I mostly prefer kilts which are not pleated to the tartan, but there seem to be some tartans the overall effect of which depends on all of the colours being seen.

One example which I happen to have a photo of is the UCR tartan. The tartan itself is lovely, with an amazingly rich blue set off against "gold" (what some call "old gold", a mustardy yellow actually).

When the entire tartan is seen all is well, but for some reason they decided to pleat the kilts so that in the pleats only the mustard yellow is seen. Pipe bands play in a circle facing inwards so that it's only the ugly yellow backs of these kilts which are usually seen. Almost everyone who has seen this band has made negative comments about their kilts. Most say that the tartan ugly, but I think it's the backs of the kilts they've mostly seen.

This photo is actually flattering to these kilts. In person the enitre back looks like an ugly mustard yellow colour. On one piper you can see the lovely rich blue of the tartan itself.

**Jock Scot** · 14th July 10, 05:56 AM

Alright we all have tartans that we like and some we do not, that is a fact of personal choice and from a Scots point of view, a matter of which family we happened to be born to. However, we were always taught to keep our disparaging thoughts about tartans to ourselves, as we are certainly going to cause less offence that way. Over the years, I have found that to be very sound advice.

**gilmore** · 14th July 10, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by ThinBlueLine

Hey all,

Galloway (District) Red can be rather hard on the eyes as well. I own a swatch of this and I can not imagine having a kilt made in this tartan:

I bought a length of this tartan some time ago at an extremely good price. It seemed a good idea at the time, since my patrilineal ancestors came to the colonies from Galloway, albeit some 300 years ago. One of these days, at a time when I have more money than sense, I will probably have a kilt made of it, and have been thinking of pleating it to the stripe with the blue and purple showing, and the red and purple inside the pleat so that the latter flashes when walking.

**gilmore** · 14th July 10, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Alright we all have tartans that we like and some we do not, that is a fact of personal choice and from a Scots point of view, a matter of which family we happened to be born to. However, we were always taught to keep our disparaging thoughts about tartans to ourselves, as we are certainly going to cause less offence that way. Over the years, I have found that to be very sound advice.

Yes, good advice, Jock.

**macwilkin** · 14th July 10, 07:16 AM

There is also a "green"/hunting variant of the Galloway tartan:

http://www.district-tartans.com/galloway.htm

T.

**OC Richard** · 15th July 10, 03:26 AM

For sure we cannot choose the family we were born to.

But does that mean we have to accept as genuine, and wear, a tartan which was designed as part of an elaborate 19th century hoax, just because it was dubbed with the same name as the family we were born to?

If the only tartan available that had the same name attached to it as my last name was one of the hideous Hay-Allan creations I would wear something else. There are too many authentic old tartans still in production, and too many lovely new tartans, to make it worthwhile to keep wearing the bogus ugly ones, whatever name the Hay-Allans, at random, christened them with.