Tartans that you wish you saw more of?

[Kevin Murphy]

I am going to cut straight to the chase here and say I believe that many special weave tartans would sell as often, if not more than the more popular ones. I believe that there are plenty of tartans that people would jump on the chance to get, kilt enthusiast or not. I would like to see some of the tartan mills submit a survey and list of the tartans to us kilt wearers so we can express our interests as a community of people who play a big part in keeping tradition alive.

Maybe I am crazy... Just kidding, of course I am crazy, but I am also insane. I will do almost anything to wear more kilts. I'll write music for kilts. I'll tell stories for kilts. I just wish some tartans would be as affordable as the others.

[notlob]

Glen Tilt, Ettrick Forest, Loch Laggan (muted colors), Cornish hunting, Rhode Island, Blairlogie, ok i'm done for now….

[plaid preacher]

There is a lovely thread on here showing a Lamont Heather tartan kilt that Barb T constructed. I have to say that I think that tartan is breathtaking and would love to have a length of it for a kilt.

[OC Richard]

I enjoy seeing any tartan not usually seen.

Even more so nowadays, when the kilt market is flooded with Pakistani kilts, which are made in a very small range of tartans which one sees over and over.

Just last weekend I was chatting with a guy in a very nice kilt I'd never seen before. When I asked he said it was Thompson in a certain uncommon colour scheme (I can't remember now what he called it).

Seems like at every Highland Games I'll see at least one tartan that's new to me. Last year at one of our local Games it was two guys wearing the then-new San Diego tartan (it's beautiful).

A while back I did a thread on the subject of how there's far more variety in the tartans chosen by Pipe Bands than there used to be. Since in most of the Games programmes each band's tartan is listed, it's easy to go back over old programmes and see what tartans the bands were wearing. Back 30 or 40 years ago most bands were wearing one of only a half-dozen different old military and clan tartans, while today many bands are wearing unusual tartans: fashion tartans, bespoke tartans, district tartans, institutional tartans, US state tartans, and so forth. Since at any Games a fairly large percentage of the kiltwearers in attendance are band members, this trend has brought more variety to the kilts seen at a modern Games (while the influx of Pakistani kilts has done the opposite).

From my earlier thread on pipe band tartans, which I discussed the great increase in variety of pipe band tartans between 2004 and 2007:

From the programme of the 2004 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow:

The most common tartans (there were 206 bands)

23 Royal Stuart
20 MacLean of Duart
18 MacPherson (red)

10 Black Stuart
8 Fraser (red)
7 PCE Stuart

So one third of the bands were wearing only five different rather similar-looking red tartans.

There were six bands in MacKenzie and five in Gordon so the old military green/blue tartans made a bit of a show.

Flower Of Scotland, a new "trade" tartan, was worn by five bands making it by far the most popular new tartan.

As opposed to this, 56 tartans occur only once.

These included some interesting ones, ones I've never heard of, such as:

Princess Elizabeth
Princess Margaret Rose
Lady Borrowdales Gift
William Murdoch
Watsonian
Welsh Piping Society
Glengarry Highland Games
Bagad Breig

Tartans appearing in 2007 which do not appear in 2004:

Monarch of the Glen
Scottish National
Scotland Forever
Spirit of Lanarkshire
Alvi
City of Rome
City of Brechin
Connemara
Niagra District
Ross and Cromarty
Roxburgh
Toronto Fire
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue
Drumalig (the bespoke tartan recently adopted by Field Marshal Montgomery, replacing Royal Stuart)
Cowal Highland Gathering
University of Strathclyde
Rangers (the football club I presume)
Grampain Police
Australian Highlanders

plus clan tartans such as Elliot, Fergusuon, Graham of Menteith, Gunn, Nicholson, and Scott.

I find it interesting the number of bands wearing modern trade etc tartans such as
Flower of Scotland
Holyrood
Millenium
Scotland 2000
Scotland the Brave
Spirit of Scotland
Scottish National
Scotland Forever
Monarch of the Glen

and the large number of district tartans.

[RockyR]

OCR...

Slight side note... I think if you look at that same stat sheet today, you may find many bands wearing their own privately designed tartans. We've designed about 6 or 8 pipe band tartans in the past 5 years or so. Interesting change as bands don't like to see "their" tartan on another band.

I enjoy seeing any tartan not usually seen.

Even more so nowadays, when the kilt market is flooded with Pakistani kilts, which are made in a very small range of tartans which one sees over and over.

Just last weekend I was chatting with a guy in a very nice kilt I'd never seen before. When I asked he said it was Thompson in a certain uncommon colour scheme (I can't remember now what he called it).

Seems like at every Highland Games I'll see at least one tartan that's new to me. Last year at one of our local Games it was two guys wearing the then-new San Diego tartan (it's beautiful).

A while back I did a thread on the subject of how there's far more variety in the tartans chosen by Pipe Bands than there used to be. Since in most of the Games programmes each band's tartan is listed, it's easy to go back over old programmes and see what tartans the bands were wearing. Back 30 or 40 years ago most bands were wearing one of only a half-dozen different old military and clan tartans, while today many bands are wearing unusual tartans: fashion tartans, bespoke tartans, district tartans, institutional tartans, US state tartans, and so forth. Since at any Games a fairly large percentage of the kiltwearers in attendance are band members, this trend has brought more variety to the kilts seen at a modern Games (while the influx of Pakistani kilts has done the opposite).

From my earlier thread on pipe band tartans, which I discussed the great increase in variety of pipe band tartans between 2004 and 2007:

From the programme of the 2004 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow:

The most common tartans (there were 206 bands)

23 Royal Stuart
20 MacLean of Duart
18 MacPherson (red)

10 Black Stuart
8 Fraser (red)
7 PCE Stuart

So one third of the bands were wearing only five different rather similar-looking red tartans.

There were six bands in MacKenzie and five in Gordon so the old military green/blue tartans made a bit of a show.

Flower Of Scotland, a new "trade" tartan, was worn by five bands making it by far the most popular new tartan.

As opposed to this, 56 tartans occur only once.

These included some interesting ones, ones I've never heard of, such as:

Princess Elizabeth
Princess Margaret Rose
Lady Borrowdales Gift
William Murdoch
Watsonian
Welsh Piping Society
Glengarry Highland Games
Bagad Breig

Tartans appearing in 2007 which do not appear in 2004:

Monarch of the Glen
Scottish National
Scotland Forever
Spirit of Lanarkshire
Alvi
City of Rome
City of Brechin
Connemara
Niagra District
Ross and Cromarty
Roxburgh
Toronto Fire
Strathclyde Fire and Rescue
Drumalig (the bespoke tartan recently adopted by Field Marshal Montgomery, replacing Royal Stuart)
Cowal Highland Gathering
University of Strathclyde
Rangers (the football club I presume)
Grampain Police
Australian Highlanders

plus clan tartans such as Elliot, Fergusuon, Graham of Menteith, Gunn, Nicholson, and Scott.

I find it interesting the number of bands wearing modern trade etc tartans such as
Flower of Scotland
Holyrood
Millenium
Scotland 2000
Scotland the Brave
Spirit of Scotland
Scottish National
Scotland Forever
Monarch of the Glen

and the large number of district tartans.

[Mike_Oettle]

This is encouraging news.
It reinforces the idea that has been going around in my head for a website featuring South African tartans, in the hope that interest will be aroused.

[figheadair]

Would this sit better in The Tartan Place? More logical and more likely to get some responses.

[Sir Didymous]

Speaking from the perspective of a member of the Clan Ferguson, I wouldn't mind seeing some more of the different tartans belonging to it. I love the Ferguson Weathered, but that's a color scheme, not a tartan on it's own. There are There are 16 different tartans bearing the name "Ferguson" One is corporate and one is personal, but of the other 14, only 3 (not counting different color schemes) are seen around with any frequency. The reenactor in me would love to be able to get a kilt in this tartan dating from between 1810-1820 http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=1159

I also would love to see a girls dance troop in "Ferguson's Promise" http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar...aspx?ref=10305

[figheadair]

Speaking from the perspective of a member of the Clan Ferguson, I wouldn't mind seeing some more of the different tartans belonging to it. I love the Ferguson Weathered, but that's a color scheme, not a tartan on it's own. There are There are 16 different tartans bearing the name "Ferguson" One is corporate and one is personal, but of the other 14, only 3 (not counting different color schemes) are seen around with any frequency. The reenactor in me would love to be able to get a kilt in this tartan dating from between 1810-1820 http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=1159

I also would love to see a girls dance troop in "Ferguson's Promise" http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar...aspx?ref=10305

There arn't actually 14 different Ferguson setts and using the NTR as an authority is unwise as their records are full of errors. Take for example, the sett they have down as 'Ferguson the Astonomer', which is no more a Ferguson tartan than any other mid-late c18th patern that an individual named Ferguson might have purchased. Nowithstanding how this may have been classified in the past, we, the STA, now list this sett as Unamed C18th - Plaid (Kingusie Museum) and not a Ferguson tartan.

[William O'Cairns]

Not a tartan necessarily, but I would like to see more tartans offered in their Weathered versions, I'm quite a fan of the look of those I have seen