Modern weathered tartans

[Cygnus]

I suppose that it would be a noble experiment for someone with a few spare swatches to mount them on a board and put them outside in the sun and snow and wind and rain for a year and see what happens...sort of like what the paint companies do to test the weather-worthiness of their products.

That would be a good experiment, though it is my understanding that the weathered tartans are supposed to replicate the passage of time and the effect of the elements on older, vegetable-dyed tartan. I have a sneaking suspicion that modern tartan with its synthetic dyes would react differently in these adverse conditions.

What we really need are two bits of old tartan, cut from the same bolt, one of which was kept safe in a cedar chest for a hundred years and the other buried in the peat bog. Then we'd have a good idea of exactly how the colours would change.