State Tartans?

[EagleJCS]

I believe it's worn by the Kentucky United Pipes & Drums, it's beautiful in person.

https://www.kentuckyunited.org/

Correct. They have kilts, ties and flashes (though I think they cut back to wearing just the kilt).

I may be mistaken, but I think any new runs have to be OK'd by the designer(s).

[User]

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I may be mistaken, but I think any new runs have to be OK'd by the designer(s).

They didn't list any restrictions when they registered it. And if it's Kentucky's official tartan, it would be strange for the designers to maintain control over it. I assume there are no restrictions on weaving it.

[EagleJCS]

As I said, I could be mistaken. The tartan was created before the Scottish Register of Tartans was created, so any further details may have been lost or not included in the registry post.

I remember there being a list of what each color supposedly represents. It may have been restricted at the time and the restriction has since been lifted.

[OC Richard]

I may be mistaken, but I think any new runs have to be OK'd by the designer(s).

Does anyone know if it's a US Patent or Copyright? Or the UK equivalent?

I'm no patent attorney so I have no idea how that would work. I'm guessing the cloth is woven in the UK.

[AFS1970]

There is an official state tartan here in Connecticut, adopted by statute passed by our legislature. When I was a member of our Saint Andrew's Society, we opposed the bill because the pattern is asymmetrical and did not follow any of the usual conventions on design. The project was started because a UCONN fashion professor was tasked with creating a fabric design for window dressings.

I like Rocky's design a bit better, although I think our flag is kind of plain looking.

[OC Richard]

There is an official state tartan here in Connecticut, adopted by statute passed by our legislature.

When I was a member of our Saint Andrew's Society, we opposed the bill because the pattern is asymmetrical and did not follow any of the usual conventions on design.

Sorry to hear that. The fact is that many of the people designing tartans haven't steeped themselves in traditional tartans and don't have an eye for tartan design. You arm people with a tartan design program and a pile of money and you get a lot of tartans that don't look very tartanlike.

I've been studying tartans for 50 years but I'm still a neophyte! I'm still have much to learn. Compared to the actual experts I'm just another American guy with a tartan design program, but without the pile of money.

To a lesser extent the same thing happened with the West Virginia tartan. There was an ostensibly early 19th century Scottish-woven tartan which is very nice and had the state adopted that all would have been well.

But no! Some eejit had to meddle with it, adding "a black stripe to symbolise coal" and a white stripe to symbolise something else, I forgot. These tacked-on stripes alternated in a non-repeating (asymmetric) way simultaneously ruining

1) the historicity of the tartan

2) the beauty of the tartan

3) the symmetry of the tartan.

And that's what got woven, the spoiled tartan. Somebody needs to weave the real tartan someday.

[Jock Scot]

To my non artistic traditional eye, modern tartans and "modernised" tartans tend to look far too cluttered and just end up as a confusing jumble of lines and colours. Not a look that this traditional kilt and tartan admirer finds kind on the eye.