Which tartan for an arisaid for a wedding?

[Maggie Pringlemeir]

Dear Kind and Gentle Folk ..

I crave your indulgence for this thread. Whilst it's NOT about kilts .. I DO have a few questions about the arisaid .. which I am told is the traditiional Highland women's garment, worn over leine, kirtle and skirt.

After wandering around for quite a while in various search engine's image sections .. I have come up with some lovely concepts of what an arisaid was and likely would be appropriately morphed into for today's use.

Apparently, an arisaid was laid on the bed with a belt, just as a great kilt. The wearer would lie upon it and fasten the belt to have a section that hung down the back and was then tucked into the skirt, the rest went up to the shoulders and was fastened in front of the neck with a brooch and hung down the back. Often it was looped and tucked into the waistband at the back. It could be pulled around the arms and shoulders to provide a place to nurture a wee one or keep warm.

What I'm wondering .. was the arisaid normally made in the HUSBAND'S tartan .. or in the woman's OWN tartan, ie, her FATHER's? Would it be appropriate to have an arisaid of the woman's family to wear to her wedding .. and would she then change to wearing her husband's tartan after that wedding?

I realize that our concepts of fancy wedding dresses and such were truly not something that the average person was able to enjoy. Garments were made as worn and woven as needed. but I can conceptualize weaving a single width on my loom .. about 22 inches .. about 2 1/2 yards long, then repeat and attach together .. to be used this way. My first thought was to make a long plaide scarf .. about 14 inches wide and 2 1/2 yards long, to wear over the shoulder like a sash .. but the arisaid .. seems to speak to me instead.

While I want to follow the traditional ways and not step upon the opinions or tempers of my fore-mothers .. well .. Scots women were and are NOT meek little creatures. We stood up and fought alongside our men and did what needed to be done. Can anyone clarify for me the whys and wherefores about female descendants wearing the clan tartans, please? (NO! NOT in kilts! {{shock}} I know better than that!)

Your consideration and counsel would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings of the Three upon Ye!

Maggie & Ruby C
... and he says WOOF!

[piperdbh]

Dr. M,
From what little bit I know, women's wear was not as well-documented as men's wear, and so there's not as much evidence for us to follow. Also, depending on what version of Highland history you subscribe to, there may or may not have been a "family tartan" for a woman (or anyone else in her family) to wear, depending on the time period, the family name, and/or location, or the family might have worn several different tartans, depending on what the local weaver made up.
Now, if you want to honor your own family(ies), then wear their tartan(s). If you want to honor your late husband's memory, wear his tartan. If you want to wear one of the clergy tartans, go for it.
I don't think any of your foremothers will rise up in agitation at your efforts to emulate them. They probably would applaud you weaving your own cloth, and wanting to be like them. My advice is this: take pictures along the way, so we can all enjoy the process.

[wyldathart]

I agree with Piper. Wear what you think does you and your ancestors honor. It's a judgment thing really. I would also like to see pics as things progress

[Panache]

Maggie,

Welcome to the Forum. I took the liberty of changing your thread's title to one that will probably attract more people to weigh in on the matter.

Best wishes on your upcoming wedding

Cheers

Jamie

[Barb T]

It's my understanding (and Matt, help me on this one!) that arisaids were typically made from tartans with a significant amount of white in them (like what we think of today as "dress" tartans).

One of the most famous arisaids is the Christina Young arisaid, which is a historical piece of fabric dating from the early 1700s. The Scottish Tartans Museum has a woven replica of this arisaid on display at their museum. Matt posted a picture of their display in a post that I made about making a kilt from this tartan. The picture in the post also shows how an arisaid was worn:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/c...381/index.html

And I should note that this historic arisaid dates from a time _before_ specific tartans were associated with specific clans (which didn't arise until the early 1800s).

Here's the finished kilt in a modern tartan (the Christina Young) based on that early arisaid:



To my mind, the weaver that makes the nicest dress tartans is DC Dalgliesh. They have about 75-80 dress tartans in a nice weight for an arisaid. Here is a list of Dalgliesh's dress tartans as of last year:



You can PM me if you're interested in getting tartan from Dalgliesh. They don't stock the Christina Young; however, they will custom weave it.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Dear Kind and Gentle Folk ..

What I'm wondering .. was the arisaid normally made in the HUSBAND'S tartan .. or in the woman's OWN tartan, ie, her FATHER's? Would it be appropriate to have an arisaid of the woman's family to wear to her wedding .. and would she then change to wearing her husband's tartan after that wedding?

Normally a woman would wear her father's tartan, as she would legally retain his surname after marriage. She would be Mary McColl, Mrs. Angus Binns. That said, most women are and were more than happy to adopt their husband's tartan-- this showed her status as a married woman, not merely the common-law wife.

I doubt seriously that there was any "changing of the dress" after the wedding cerremony, but the woman may have put on her husbands plaid to show that she was now "his" and not her father's responsibility.

There are several good illustrations of the arisaid in Christian, Lady Hesketh's book TARTANS.

[Rogerson785]

Normally a woman would wear her father's tartan, as she would legally retain his surname after marriage. She would be Mary McColl, Mrs. Angus Binns. That said, most women are and were more than happy to adopt their husband's tartan-- this showed her status as a married woman, not merely the common-law wife.

This may be far fetched and somewhat off topic, but could a man adopt his uncle’s tartan, specifically a lowlander adopting a highlander that has married into the family?

[Jock Scot]

This may be far fetched and somewhat off topic, but could a man adopt his uncle’s tartan, specifically a lowlander adopting a highlander that has married into the family?

Without things getting silly here,or, technical,I would have to say that any connection is better than none. In the highlands here, no one minds one bit if you have no connection to a clan, as long as you are honest about it and stick to the ONE clan. So "it is my uncle's tartan" should be good enough reason for anyone.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Without things getting silly here,or, technical,I would have to say that any connection is better than none. In the highlands here, no one minds one bit if you have no connection to a clan, as long as you are honest about it and stick to the ONE clan. So "it is my uncle's tartan" should be good enough reason for anyone.

Jock beat me to the punch, but his answer is 100% on target.