Duke of Edinburgh Tartan

[Patty Logan]

Does anybody have or seen a kilt made in this tartan? This is one of the many tartans I found on the register that makes me think of all the different possibilities of strips that could be used if the kilt was pleated to the strip.

I want to know your opinion on witch strip you would choose and why.

[OC Richard]

Kiltmakers have said here that what works best, for pleating to the stripe, is a single isolated narrow stripe flanked by broad stripes, like the black line in the green in Black Watch.



I don't see any place in Duke of Edinburgh that's like that.

The complex band of that tartan is pretty dense with tons of little lines all bunched together and might be challenging to do.

Seems to me that the closest thing to an "ideal" place is the pair of narrow green stripes flanked by broad blue stripes, except that the blue stripes have fine black lines in them.

The pleater might end up using the pair of unequal-sized red stripes on the broad green ground.

Much depends on the size of the sett.

BTW all I can find online are CGI images done by Dalgleish, I didn't see any photos of woven cloth.

[figheadair]

Notwithstanding the fact that the designer won first prize at the Royal Highland Show for a plaid woven in this tartan, it does not work as a design IMO. It was clearly based on the Royal Stewart and looks to have elements of the Hunting Stewart incorporated but the result is something that is unbalanced and over complicated in my view.

There are so many far nicer and more practical historical designs. If it were me, I'd give this one a stiff ignoring.

[Patty Logan]

BTW all I can find online are CGI images done by Dalgleish, I didn't see any photos of woven cloth.

Yeah, the Register says that it only exists so far as a plaid in the Paisley Museum…

[Patty Logan]

…I'd give this one a stiff ignoring.

Well said Peter. I’m glad to have a Tartan Historian chiming in.

[Patty Logan]

Kiltmakers have said here that what works best, for pleating to the stripe, is a single isolated narrow stripe flanked by broad stripes, like the black line in the green in Black Watch.

Would you consider pleating it to the double black strip on blue even if it doesn’t repeat as often like the black strip on green does?

[figheadair]

Would you consider pleating it to the double black strip on blue even if it doesn’t repeat as often like the black strip on green does?

Tha5 would mean the pleats would be twice as deep, probably too deep.

[figheadair]

Would you consider pleating it to the double black strip on blue even if it doesn’t repeat as often like the black strip on green does?

That would mean the pleats would be twice as deep, probably too deep.

[OC Richard]

Would you consider pleating it to the double black strip on blue even if it doesn’t repeat as often like the black strip on green does?

Like Peter said if you only do the black line-pairs that are centred on every other blue block you would have twice as much cloth gobbled up in the pleats.

On the other hand, every other blue block has two black line-pairs at the sides, and one of these side-pairs could be alternated with the centre-pairs, though it might mean putting the black line-pairs a bit offset on each pleat. That would depend on how wide the pleats are on the outside.

The pleats would look the same on the outside, but on the inside you could see that the pleats alternate between two slightly different depths.

An offset thing like that was done on my Hunting Stewart kilt. That tartan has a double-size sett which is challenging to pleat to the stripe and keep all the pleats looking the same. The kiltmaker found a stripe that repeats almost evenly, and on the outside the pleats all look the same. But inside you can see that the pleats alternate between two depths.

[OC Richard]

Notwithstanding the fact that the designer won first prize at the Royal Highland Show for a plaid woven in this tartan, it does not work as a design...unbalanced and overly complicated...

Agreed that central area is almost inconceivably intricate, packed with a mass of tiny lines that don't contribute anything to the design.

However like pretty much anything based on Royal Stewart (the Swiss Army Knife of tartan) the overall design works pretty well for me.

It actually poses an interesting design challenge: to re-work that design into something that works well.

Not worth the effort most would say! But 10 minutes of tinkering would yield a huge improvement.