Originally Posted by
figheadair
the joy and beauty of tartan is the variations in colour, shade and hue achieved by using distinctly different colours in the pattern.
That's my feeling. The Highlanders had an ancient love of pattern and colour. These modern all-black and all-grey outfits just don't appeal to me.
Even worse...the all-white!
(Why oh why did they use black flashes? When they were so close, so very close...)
Yet it's true that the Victorians liked selfcoloured tweed kilts, a departure IMHO from Highland tradition.
When we think of practically any Highland thing, the surface is decorated by whatever means suited the object and its materials.
Cloth was woven and yarn was knit in patterns, leather was tooled, metal surfaces engraved, wood turned with combing and beading.
Here, a riot of colour and pattern meet the eye
An early set of pipes, the surface practically crawling with pattern
More so when you go further back, the piob bhreac of the MacLeods (ironically put in a selfcoloured cover!)
And the old love of colour and pattern is alive today! A piper last weekend competing at Highland Games
in stark contrast to this current kilt hire offering
Last edited by OC Richard; 13th November 18 at 06:25 AM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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