Tartan ID help please

[OC Richard]

OC Richard, interesting thank you - would it not be the case that if mine didn't have the red lines, then the sett would match e.g. MacQueen, but the red lines make it different? Thanks again

It just goes to show that the same pattern can be used to generate a large number of different tartans, just by changing the colours around. Sometimes the change in colours can make the tartan look so different that I can't see the similarity until somebody points it out.

[Katia]

That's interesting! Short kilts with sporrans, not a good look.

I had to look closely to see if the sporran wasn't longer than the kilt, lol.

I know that dress tartans have always been around, but I didn't know they were popular with dancers that far back.

Back when I was a newbie piper (1970s) I met a woman who had been Highland dancer, she had worn an ordinary tartan that had no white, ancient Cooper actually. It's pretty, with purple stripes. At the time she had been out of dancing for a number of years and told me "my kilt wouldn't do now, they want white." That gave me the impression that in the 1960s dancers weren't wearing white tartans. Obviously they were!

I've seen photos of men doing Highland dancing in the 1900-1910 period and they're wearing ordinary tartans. I wonder when white became associated with dancing.

I think they probably were... just not nearly-universally like now. People claim the white shows up better on the platform-- this might make sense if dancing on a stage with a dark background/curtains but probably doesn't matter in other contexts (outdoors, gym floor or other type of non-stage indoor location, etc.). (And maybe it looks more cute and less "heavy" for kid dancers and older dancers picked it up as well.) However, these days it's so nearly-universal, as I said, that I'm pretty sure if I told my teacher I was getting a new kilt and considering a non-dress tartan, she would advise me against it, with the idea that the judges might take exception to it. (Which is too bad, because if I was getting a new kilt, it would be Ancient Clark. )

As far as the early-1900s male dancers go... to an extent, especially in those days, I wonder if they may not have been simply wearing kilts they already had, rather than having bought kilts specifically for dancing... especially if they weren't specifically competitive dancers and were simply men with kilts, who danced.

[AbernethyCameron]

Got it, thanks. Still drwaing a blank, it's not on the STA's database and so have probably never been recorded. No doubt a special.

Thank you for trying, this one will have to remain a mystery then!