Remembering a tartan 40 years later, Part 2

[OC Richard]

(The original thread is locked and the photos have disappeared into the Photobucket abyss, so...)

It was 1975 and I had just got my first set of pipes. Best Day Ever!

Now I needed my first kilt. But I had only once seen a kilt in person, and didn't know anywhere I could get one. This in the pre-internet days, mind you. So in our hillbilly make-do way I went down to the local fabric shop and bought a length of a passably tartanlike wool. I liked the colours; we were living in the desert and the tartan was mostly tan and blue which I thought was suitable for the desert sand and sky.

My grandmother made the kilt. She had never seen one, and we were mostly guessing as to how they were made.

I wore this kilt only for a year or two, and I have no idea what became of it.

A few years ago, around the 40th anniversary of getting that first kilt, I was trying to remember what that tartan looked like. I couldn't find a single photo of it.

Here's what I came up with from memory, having not seen that tartan for nearly 40 years:



I remembered a tan background, wide Royal Blue stripes, and smaller stripes of black, red, and white.

Then recently I came across a trove of old family slides, and in it were a couple photos of me wearing that kilt!

They're the earliest photos I have of me kilted or piping:





From that I've been able to come up with a more accurate reconstruction. Interesting that I remembered the little black/white/black motif! But completely misremembered where the red occurred.



In the earlier thread someone pointed out the similarity of this "fashion tartan" to a version of Royal Stewart with a tan background and blue motif, called "navy Stewart" or "Royal Stewart, navy".

Here's a fellow XMarker wearing his navy Stewart kilt

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...stewart-18313/

[figheadair]

Richard,

I agree that it has the look of a fashion tartan about it. I've been through the 9000 odd designs and variations in the STA Db but cannot find it. Given the date that's not a surprise and it's entirely conceivable that the material was woven somewhere other than Scotland and without the aid of the Internet at that date, or computer records, it's no surprise that it was not recorded at the time.

[Queenslander]

Nice design and colours though.

[pbutts]

I’m glad to see this post pop up again. I remember it from my first “binge reading” of XMTS back in 2012. You are in many ways the epitome of the board, from the can do/make do spirit of this first kilt to the many thoughtful and detailed posts you contribute on a regular basis. Thank you.

[eagle43172]

Old friend that’s how I remember you when you moved to Pomona.
Remover the kilt before you got the McDonald one.

[OC Richard]

Old friend that’s how I remember you when you moved to Pomona.
Remover the kilt before you got the McDonald one.

Yes indeed!

I ordered that MacDonald of the Isles Hunting fabric from The Scottish Shopper in Seattle, and my Grandmother made that kilt too.

My Dad and I went to the Santa Monica Highland Games around that time, I in my MacDonald kilt and my Dad in the tan & blue one.

We went our own ways at the Games for a bit, and when we met up my Dad said that people had been asking him "what tartan is that?" to which he replied "Cook of Kintyre."

That was my Dad 100%, he was a character.

[OC Richard]

Richard,

I agree that it has the look of a fashion tartan about it. I've been through the 9000 odd designs and variations in the STA Db but cannot find it. Given the date that's not a surprise and it's entirely conceivable that the material was woven somewhere other than Scotland and without the aid of the Internet at that date, or computer records, it's no surprise that it was not recorded at the time.

Yes I'm sure it's just a fashion tartan woven who-knows-where.

I have always felt a bit sentimental about it, ugly though it is, because it was my first.