Check vs Tartan

[Daaaaang]

What is the difference between a check and a tartan? I've seen a lot of people with a particular tartan scarf and the like, and looked up the tartan, to find out that it was the Burberry Check. Here is a picture of the check itself:



So what makes this a check and not a tartan?

Thanks,
Matt

[ccga3359]

It appears that the pattern is taller than wide*. A tartan is the same width as height.

*It could be a lousy, stretched pic though.

[The Wizard of BC]

My former wife's father was the seam waxer at Burberry. You know, the people who made the famous Trench Coats of WWI and "Casablance" fame.
According to him The Burberry Check was a distinctive design of heavy wool that they lined their coats with. But because they were from Cardiff, Wales and not Scotland they chose to name it a "Check" and not a Tartan to avoid being associated with a country that at the time was considered backwards and rural.
In the '70's to own an authentic Burberry coat was the height of fashion in London. Like the stripes of Gucci, everything was soon sporting the Burberry check from ladies handbags to scarves. If you didn't have something from Burberry you just weren't fashionable. That fad arrived in the US in the '80's and somewhere lost the connection. I doubt that even one of the teenagers sporting the distinctive Tartan will know it's history.
The Burberry Check is a true Tartan and is listed with the Scottish Tartans Authority.

[TheKiltedWonder]

I've always been tempted to get a kilt made in Thompson Camel and have a "Burberry" kilt. Or close enough anyway

[James MacMillan]

Ther's a nice article here that is interesting.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Technically, the difference between a "check" and a "tartan" is that the tartan will contain half tones where the colors blend, and the check will just have color next to color with no blending. Let's see if Google image will allow me to give some visual representations.

This is a tartan (the Rob Roy tartan):


This is a check:


Both use only two colors, red and black. But in the case of the tartan a "third color" is created where the red and black mix. Not so with the check.

That's the technical difference. HOWEVER, in common parlance, "check" is often used to refer to a tartan of very simple design. For instance, if someone asked, "What does the Rob Roy tartan look like?" the likely answer would be, "It's a simple red and black check," even though that is not technically correct.

Some tartans that are commonly referred to as "checks" would include the Shepherd's tartan (also the Northumberland district tartan), commonly called "Shepherd's Check":


The Robert Burns commemorative tartan, commonly called "Burns Check":


Both of the above examples are truly tartans, though they are commonly called checks due to the simplicity of their pattern. However, many people mistakenly refer to any and all tartans as "checks" even if the tartan is not characteristically simple in design. This would be the case of the so-called Burberry check, which is really a tartan. Many people use the terms synonymously, or in conjunction. These seems much more common in the fashion industry than in the Highland Dress indiustry, as might be expected. Doing a Google search for the phrase "tartan check" will come up with all manner of web sites selling "tartan check shirts" and "tartan check skirts" and "tartan check lady's pants," etc.

This is an incorrect usage of the term, on a technical level, but very common it would seem.

[Barb T]

The only way to create the true black and red check fabric shown in Matt's second picture as a woven (not printed) fabric is by doing a double weave. In a double weave, each block is woven twice, once for the front of the fabric and once for the back. Essentially, the fabric consists of two warps and two wefts that alternate with respect to which is on the top side of the fabric. This creates a pocket in the fabric for each check with a pure black side (black warp and weft) on one side of the fabric and a pure red side (red warp and weft on the other. The fabric winds up being very thick as a result of the two layers.

Oh - I guess you could also weave it as pure black and red checks if you were willing to have the back of the fabric be a mess of floats. Not a very practical fabric.

If you're weaving plain weave or twill, it's impossible to weave a pure black and red check. The warp would be striped black and red, and the weft would be striped black and red. Wherever black crossed black, the square would be black. Where red crossed red, the square would be red. But where black crossed red or red crossed black, there has to be a blend. You can see this in Matt's first pic.

Of course, it you're talking about printed fabric, you can do anything you want!!

Barb

[Daaaaang]

Ther's a nice article here that is interesting.

I saw "time for a reality" and groaned before I even saw the word "check." Informative article, thanks!

And thanks everybody, I love the wealth of knowledge on this forum, it's really incredible. This is what university should be like.

[Clockwork John]

This is what university should be like.

Amen, brother!

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . Many people use the terms synonymously, or in conjunction. . . .

That's the main source of the confusion. For people who want to be technically correct, a convenient mnemonic is that a check looks like a checkerboard.

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