Dress
tartans
were originally worn by the women of the
clan
who preferred
lighter-colored patterns. Generally, the
design
is a variant of the
clan's normal tartan, but with one of
the
background colors
changed to white. Dress tartans
were
designed to be showy
and were used on formal occasions
and
have become popular wear
at Highland dances. Not all clans
have dress tartans and even
in clans that do, the “regular”
tartan is perfectly suitable for evening and formal wear.
Hunting tartans
were devised for those clans who normally
sported
very bright tartans which were deemed unsuitable for
the
chase. In hunting
setts, earthly colors such as muted browns and
greens usually
predominated. As with dress tartans not
all
clans have hunting
tartans.
Mourning
tartans at one time were worn for the purpose
for
which they were
named. They were generally of black
and
white.
Nowadays few clans have mourning tartans.
"Modern"
or
"Ancient" Colors
The mills which weave tartan material
are in the business of selling their product. To encourage sales and to
satisfy differences in taste, the mills have developed variations of
color. We now have “modern,” “ancient,” “reproduction” and “weathered”
tartans. These terms do not apply to the age of the tartan, but rather to
the shades
of color used in the weaving.
Modern is actually the oldest color. The
brighter and darker
“modern” hues were made possible by new dyes developed
after
1855.
Ancient
became popular in the 1950's and 1960's.
The
“ancient”
hues are softer and show the pattern better than
the
"modern”
hues.
Reproduction and Weathered tartans are even newer.
The
hues imitate
tartan long exposed to sun, rain, and soil.
As a general rule clans do not have a preference between modern, ancient,
reproduction, or weathered colors. The choice is entirely up to the
individual.
"Tartan" versus "Plaid"
The words “tartan”
and “plaid” are not
synonymous although many non-Scottish people wrongly use the words interchangeably.
A “tartan” is a colored pattern while a “plaid” is a
piece of cloth. (See the next page.) To distinguish this Scots pronounce
“plaid” as “played” rather than as “plad.” A Scotsman would
never refer to his tartan as his
“plaid.”
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