I have read that Victorians, with their cult of mourning, sometimes wore mourning tartans, that is, their ususal tartan pattern but in black and white. I guess those who couldn't afford to have their own tartan woven especially in that color scheme, or didn't have time, could have worn the black and white Menzies.

Does anyone know if there was ever a custom of men (or women, too, I guess) wearing black and white tartan for a proscribed period of time, then going to mauve, as did widows or others who had lost close family members?

I know that black is the new black, etc, but some of us are getting to an age when we go to more funerals then we used to, and it might be nice to wear something less dressily sophisticated and perhaps more appropriate to such an ocassion.