Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
"Is it now time for the non Scots to START to wear their own (non Scots) tartans?"I think, probably, its already started. There are countless tartans that represent State, military unit,Country, region and so on.
...as time distances Scots connections, then are we going to see more and more tartans that are more appropriate to the future kilt wearers' connections?
As people have pointed out, this process is already in full swing (so to speak) here in the USA.

I'm a newbie on this forum and one of the first things I did was to look back over a large number of old posts and threads, especially in the "show us your kilt pics" section and "your best kilt pic" section. I was struck by how large a percentage of the tartans being worn are recent inventions, both non-Scottish tartans such as American Heritage etc and new Scottish non-clan tartans such as Isle of Skye etc.

In the "old days" tartan choices were few and individuals either tried to find a tartan that linked somehow to their familiy or just picked one of the old clan tartans because they liked it. All individuals and Pipe Bands wore old clan and regimental tartans because they were the only tartans available.

But now, how different it is here! A local Pipe Band started up and chose the California tartan. Our band, back in the 1980's, went with British Columbia simply because we loved the colours (remember when teal and fuschia were the hot colours?) A friend moved to Kentucky and the pipe band he joined wears the Kentucky tartan. Many pipe bands the world over are going with self-designed tartans (Field Marshall Montgomery for one) or new non-clan tartans (Spirit Of Scotland Pipe Band went with...Isle of Skye...not Spirit of Scotland... go figure.)