old tartans were "simple and earthy"

[figheadair]

I was wondering about the tartan Liam Neeson wears in the film Rob Roy.

I found a New York Times article about the tartan which included:

Sandy Powell, the costume designer for "Rob Roy," decided to steer clear of controversy over the MacGregor tartan. She devised her own "setts," or ginghamlike checks. "It was very difficult to find an original tartan dating back to the period that the director liked the looks of," she said, referring to Michael Caton-Jones, "and it was easier to make one up so it wouldn't be wrong. In that day and age, tartans didn't exist as we know them. The tartans were earthy, and designs were simple."

I was commissioned to provide historical tartan advice for the film and worked with Sandy Powell (she was also the costume designer for The Last Emperor and Last of the Mohicans). I showed her a number of specimens broadly contemporary with Roy Roy, including the so-called MacGregor of Glengyle, Roy Roy's branch of the clan. She loved all of them but unfortunately, she was overruled by the director.

I vividly remember her comment about the Deeside sett, that it was beautiful by she couldn’t use it because ‘the Director wouldn’t have Liam Neeson in pink’!

In the end they commission a new ‘traditional’ tartan Designed and woven by Gordon Covell of The Islay Woollen Mill. Of course, the resulting design and cloth was anything by traditional, especially for a man of Rob Roy’s status.

[OC Richard]

I was commissioned to provide historical tartan advice for the film and worked with Sandy Powell...I showed her a number of specimens broadly contemporary with Roy Roy...She loved all of them but unfortunately she was overruled by the director.

That's typical Hollywood, they hire expert consultants then overrule the advice they give!

Every film where a uniform is incorrect, where a doctor does something no doctor would do, where a firearm is used in a way that no-one familiar with that firearm would do there's an expert telling the director "that's not how it would be".

I was present at one of those times where the director actually listened to the experts. For the film The Onion Field they filmed a sequence that was supposed to take place at a Highland Games.

They hired several local Pipe Bands (including mine) and actual Highland Dancers etc to make the Games as realistic as possible.

But for the Highland Dancing competition they had hired an accordion player!! (They must have seen an Irish dance competition somewhere.)

The director was seated with a camera operator up on a crane for a crane shot of the Games, and a crowd of pipers and dancers began yelling up at him that a piper has to play for the Highland dancers! The director, to his credit, got rid of the accordion player (who still got paid of course) and an experienced dance piper took his place at the dance stage.

In any case yes for any film Rob Roy included there's an Art Director who in conjunction with the Director had established a palette for the film, and obviously none of the historical tartans matched that palette.

Doesn't surprise me that the Costumer loved them! Costume people love to study actual historical clothing and incorporate it into their designs.