Wear of Clan Tartan by non-Clan Members

[Martyn]

Best just purchase a non affiliated tartan, I have 2 kilts as such and nobody will ever be offended.

[Mael Coluim]

Good advice, Martyn.

If I were to wear only two non-family tartan the choice would be easy. First, the X Marks the Scot tartan available at the XMarks the Scot store here. But I have to say I feel that the Rabble here are more family than my Clan.

The second is the Caledonia tartan. That gets the comments from the ladies, what a beautiful tartan where normally the ladies comment I love your kilt.

[kiltbook]

You are right. In general, it is considered in poor taste to wear the tartan of a clan whose surname, sept name, or ancestry you do not possess. However, in the USA many people do this and no one cares. If you are wearing the kilt around your home and only around members of your family of course you may wear any tartan you like. If you are attending a Scots heritage event, like the Highland Games, you may want to wear a universal tartan so as not to offend others who may have strong feelings about the matter.

Some common univeral tartans include: Royal Stewart, Hunting Stewart, Black Stewart, Dress Stewart, Black Watch, Pride of Scotland, Heritage of Scotland, Irish National, Irish Heritage, Heritage of Ireland, Jacobite, Caledonia, Isle of Skye.

Kilts made of a single, solid color, or tweed are also considered universal. Solid black kilts are worn by many Irish dancers.

Universal tartans may be worn by anyone both Scots and non-Scots.

Good luck to you. I hope you find a beautiful tartan to wear!

[Meggers]

Please pardon (and I believe you do) we, or at least some of us, of the diaspora about being fiercely protective of our heritage, including the symbols thereof. I believe you are right in assuming that it would not be such an issue if we had all been born and lived our whole lives in the Highlands.

I definitely understand where you are coming from and I am very very similar myself. Heritage is identity and it is what sets you apart and gives you a wonderful sense of uniqueness in this world.

I have a friend who sports the Claddagh ring and now I certainly don't mind, but in the beginning, when I saw them wearing it, I had asked her if she was Irish and she said no. Then, it almost seemed as though it became a competition over who had their Claddagh's the longest: me or her. The whole exchange was childish in the long run, but I took it to heart because I AM Irish-American and so very fiercely proud of it. That symbol was something of me, something of my identity and it was being worn by someone who doesnt share that identity. I wouldnt be being honest if I said it didnt get under my skin. It did. And that's just the Claddagh. If it was something like a clan symbol or tartan of mine, it would have been 100 times worse.

I recognize this protective characteristic in myself and I own up to it. I am protective of my heritage as well because I am a minority in my community so when it is being displayed by people who arent part of my heritage, it gets under my skin.

As someone without a clan though (though my last name was commonly used by MacGregors so theres definitely a possibility that that is where my clan affiliation lies, though I would never sport MacGregor stuff unless I knew it 100%), I really dont need to worry about this. In order to prevent it on my end, though, I would wear tartan that I DO have claim to: Co. Derry, Cork, Armagh, Tyrone, Irish-American, Irish National, Scottish Heritage, Scottish Islamic, etc. Tartans without a clan affiliation but still meaningful to my identity and to who I am.

[David Thorpe]

Well said, Meghan. Some of those Irish county tartans are very beautiful!

[Kilted Cole]

http://www.albanach.org/articles.htm...h.org/why.html

This is the link I originally intended to post. Don't know why I posted the wrong one.....may have been a Squiril moment. For those who have seen pixars "Up" you'll get the joke. But in any event I fall into the last category. Many others may not, I do respect that and would hopefully be granted the same in return. Best way for me to give an example would be that I'm no longer in the Military and as a result have completely given up on insisting to the people around me dress in regulation manner. Hair, trousers, shirt stay's, bloused boots ect. But then again I've finally gotten to the "live and let live" frame of mind. People are going to dress how they are going to dress, if you don't like it, my advice is to do as I, and not to socialize with them.

[creagdhubh]

Well said, Jock.
My Chief resides in Canada. His late father, also a Canadian, was asked by the Lord Lyon to matriculate his arms after a 200-year dormancy of the Chiefship of our clan.
I don't know how it is with other clans, but our Clan "Association" is an international corporation, headed by our Clan Chief, and is very closely linked to the Clan itself. The Chief's Arms and even the cap badge design are registered trademarks of said corporation.
Please pardon (and I believe you do) we, or at least some of us, of the diaspora about being fiercely protective of our heritage, including the symbols thereof. I believe you are right in assuming that it would not be such an issue if we had all been born and lived our whole lives in the Highlands.

***

The Clan Macpherson Association is most definitely an international association, too. Well said, David.

Kind regards,

[SlackerDrummer]

I think the Harley example is a bit off... as a teen, I wore many harley shirts and never owned one. I simply liked the bikes and supported "team harley" over "team honda".

Your reasons for wearing it may have been that, but can you be certain that everyone else understood it that way?

Yes, I'm pretty sure he can. The average age for a first-time purchaser of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle when I was a teenager (and Rocky can't be too far off from that) was 55 years old. Harleys ain't cheap and back then, by comparison, they were even more expensive - both to buy and to maintain. Not many a teenager in the Mid-Atlantic states would have been riding a Harley-Davidson.

[Oldhiker]

wear what you like but learn a little bit about the tartan. You will always have people ask, some of whom are connected and some of whom are just curious. The ones who are conected will be impressed that you learned about their "clan" and respected it so much to choose to spend $$$. Unless it is a restricted tartan shouldnt be any bad questions. "why are you wearing the Duke's tartan?"

[David Thorpe]

The ones who are conected will be impressed that you learned about their "clan" and respected it so much to choose to spend $$$.

A rather broad and possibly inaccurate generalization, don't you think?