Mixing tartans - yes or no?

[MacLowlife]

Too Much is Not Enough

I am not going to bother with the two clans question, other than to observe that there may be 2000 people on earth who could say with certainty that someone was breaking that rule in most cases. You'd have to know a lot of tartans and be sure that what you saw was absolutely what you thought it was. Or you could just jump up and tell some stranger ( undoubtedly a clan chief if I ever tried it) that he was wearing his own clothes wrong...

But I got off track there. What I was going to say is that there are times and places when you want no more tartan than your kilt and there are times and places when you want every square inch you can drape or pin to your body. As somebody said nearby not too long ago, sometimes you have to Go Big or Go Home.

The trick, like so many other tricks, is to know when to do which... But if you aren't sure, you're probably better off with less.

Here's a slightly related question: Has anyone ever, just once, said "I have no idea which tartan this is" when asked ? Were you ejected or shunned?

[rmckay]

Question here Jock. You said not to wear Clan Tartan "A" with Clan Badge "D". My wife is of Irish decent and her name is one of those with a Badge associated with it. So would it be wrong to wear my MacKay kilt and say a kilt pin or badge of her family name in respect for her and her family? Always been curious about that.

[Jock Scot]

Question here Jock. You said not to wear Clan Tartan "A" with Clan Badge "D". My wife is of Irish decent and her name is one of those with a Badge associated with it. So would it be wrong to wear my MacKay kilt and say a kilt pin or badge of her family name in respect for her and her family? Always been curious about that.

The problem here is that I doubt that there are many Scots who would know an Irish "name" badge, so the danger(I use the word very lightly) that a MacKay might notice. Do you want to spend half an hour explaining, in the unlikely event of anyone noticing? No it is hardly going to tip the the world off balance, but that is not how it is done. Let me explain.

We all have two sides of where our roots come from and unless there is a tadd of order about these things we could be festooned with all sorts of tartans and badges to honour our assorted roots,but that is not how we do it. Generally speaking one tartan is worn and the badge of that tartan(a fellow with his own coat of arms may if he chooses wear his own crest) accompanies it. That is how its done, I did not come up with the idea, I am just answering the question!

[Jock Scot]

Too Much is Not Enough





Here's a slightly related question: Has anyone ever, just once, said "I have no idea which tartan this is" when asked ? Were you ejected or shunned?

Yes.