Tartan flashes?

[MacLowlife]

A few years ago, I was in Aberlour and wandered into a country outfitters sort of place. I bought a tub of Dubbin leather preservative and (I believe) a package containing two garters and several sets of flashes. A quick check on the Dubbin lid says C A GAMMACK, but I may have mixed up purchases from two different stores. I am fairly certain it was Aberlour.

At any rate, the garters run through several colors in both bright and subdued shades: red, burgundy-brown, gold, bright blue, forest green and kelly green. There may be more or less. I am not looking at them right now, but I like the idea that the set covers almost any color.

A few weeks ago, I was warned about mixing tartans. I think if you had more than one tartan for your clan, a nice place to show the variety might be some small flashes, but when you have just the one, I think the risk is that you are going to look like someone hit you with the Royal Stewart Stick, or the Black Watch one, or whatever.
Kilt, flashes, plaid, necktie, sporran flap, tam, pencil case, dog leash?
Oh, yes, and matching thermos bottle.

[Nighthawk]

A few years ago, I was in Aberlour and wandered into a country outfitters sort of place. I bought a tub of Dubbin leather preservative and (I believe) a package containing two garters and several sets of flashes. A quick check on the Dubbin lid says C A GAMMACK, but I may have mixed up purchases from two different stores. I am fairly certain it was Aberlour.

At any rate, the garters run through several colors in both bright and subdued shades: red, burgundy-brown, gold, bright blue, forest green and kelly green. There may be more or less. I am not looking at them right now, but I like the idea that the set covers almost any color.

A few weeks ago, I was warned about mixing tartans. I think if you had more than one tartan for your clan, a nice place to show the variety might be some small flashes, but when you have just the one, I think the risk is that you are going to look like someone hit you with the Royal Stewart Stick, or the Black Watch one, or whatever.
Kilt, flashes, plaid, necktie, sporran flap, tam, pencil case, dog leash?
Oh, yes, and matching thermos bottle.

That's my point exactly. I've been told also by a million friends/reletives/etc that mixing tartans is a no no- unless they're variants of the same tartan.

[Tiny]

I currently only own one pair of flashes, they came with my Black Stewart kilt as such I will wear them when I wear the Black Stewart kilt. The only other kilt I would wear them with is my solid black kilt I wear to work and that is more so I can display my tartan at work, Dress code at work permits black or khaki skirts but no patterns. I will always wear tartan flashes to work, but I will eventually get solid flashes to accent colors.

I personally prefer solid flashes with a tartan kilt and solid or tartan flashes with a solid kilt.

[slohairt]

I wear both, though I wear the traditional garter ties most often. Lately I've been wearing garter ties which are the exact same colour as the hose.

[MacBubba45]

you are going to look like someone hit you with the Royal Stewart Stick,

Ha! Theres' a couple of people in the current LLBean catalogue that got hit by that stick!

[OC Richard]

When I got interested in Highland dress over 30 years ago I got every book I could find on the subject, travelled to Scotland to see the portraits in the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh etc. My "eye" is a result of all of that looking.

To my eye, tartan flashes look "wrong" because they're not in line with Highland dress as we can view it from 18th century portraits up through the 19th century etc.

They seem to have been cooked up rather recently. I suspect that they were invented by kiltmakers trying to find a way to utilise those leftover strips of tartan..."hmmm...a pity to throw those scraps out...but whatever is small and narrow enough to be made out of them? I know! Tartan flashes!"

Flashes have always been made out of material made in long narrow lengths, "ribbon" if you will. The regimental garters always seem to have been made of twill-weave worsted wool, always red.

Oddly, in the large collection of 1860's portraits The Highlanders of Scotland most men have no visible flashes. That surprised me because the regiments all wore visible flashes. In any case the flashes that do show are either plain/self-coloured/solid-colored or striped. The pipers of the Queens Own Highlanders wore striped flashes.

There are many things which should not be tartan:

[HarborSpringsPiper]

Oddly, in the large collection of 1860's portraits The Highlanders of Scotland most men have no visible flashes. That surprised me because the regiments all wore visible flashes. In any case the flashes that do show are either plain/self-coloured/solid-colored or striped. The pipers of the Queens Own Highlanders wore striped flashes.

I think this is an excellent observation and I too wonder what was going on there. Were they not using any garters at all? Were they using a woven tie garter without visible ends? Were they using elastic garters and didn't bother with flashes? Did the artist, MacLeay, just not capture this detail in some of his paintings?

Is there anybody else who is familiar with these prints that has anything historical to add regarding garter ties and flashes in the 19th century? Richard and I had previously traded an email over this and I was somewhat surprised to find that elastic dated back to 1820. I have no idea when it entered Highland fashion to keep one's hose "aloft".

[Zardoz]

I have tartan flashes that go with 3 kilts, my Nightstalker, Caledonia and X-Marks tartans. I wear the tartan flashes if they will go together well with the hose and rest of the outfit.
Example, if I'm wearing the X-Marks kilt with grey hose, the tartan flashes look good there. If I'm wearing charcoal hose, the tartan ones are a bit dark, so I'll usally go with light blue flashes for a little contrast.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I think this is an excellent observation and I too wonder what was going on there. Were they not using any garters at all? Were they using a woven tie garter without visible ends? Were they using elastic garters and didn't bother with flashes? Did the artist, MacLeay, just not capture this detail in some of his paintings?

Given Kenneth MacLeay's exquisite eye for detail, I suspect that in those water colours done for Queen Victoria where garters aren't to be seen, that they are under the turnover of the hose. 17 of the men depicted in the pictures do have garters so it seems doubtful the others were omitted by the painter. In addition to the 17 already mentioned, MacLeay's posthumous portrait of Prince Albert (done from a photograph) and his portrait of The Chisholm (done from life) show both gentlemen to be wearing garters.

Whether some of these garters are elastic... well, that's anyone's guess.