Wearing kilts of other tartans than your clans.

[RamsayClanCommish]

Out of curiosity, do you strictly wear the tartan of your clan and septs or do you find a tartan you like and wear it as well?

I am curious as it seems many on the board wear kilts simply because they like the pattern and are not strictly beholding to thier own family tartan...unless I am mistaken.

[ardchoille]

My main kilt is in the red and green MacGregor tartan, because that is my clan. But, I do have a few kilts made of tartans from clans to which I am not related, I wear them solely because I like the pattern - though I do learn a bit about the clan just in case anyone asks about it. There are also fashion tartans (Pride of Scotland and Scotland National are my favorites) that anyone can freely wear.

[Beertigger]

If I like it, I wear it - regardless of what clan it is/I am. If I don't like it, I don't wear it - regardless.

[The Wizard of BC]

I'm a N. American mutt. I don't really have a Clan affiliation. Any ancestors I have who may have come from Scotland came here so long ago that no one in my family can trace it.

But I choose to the wear the Kilt.

This leaves me with a bit of a different situation than many here.

I wear the X Marks Tartan because this is my Clan. I feel closer to the members here than to any ancestor I have.

I wear the Isle of Skye Tartan because I like it. I wear the Ben Dubh Tartan because I like it. I wear the HBC Tartan because I like it. And for now other reasons.

Others Tartan I feel I have a connection to I will probably wear, or not, because I don't really like the Tartan. The Maple Leaf and Leatherneck are two examples that come to mind.

I know that the Tartans I wear are not Clan Tartans and that helps.

So, I guess because I don't feel an ancestral link to a Scottish Clan I have a strange outlook on what I will choose to wear.

[Jock Scot]

I wear my clan tartan and only my clan tartan and have done for over 60 years.Most Scots,not all, who actually own a kilt would think along these lines.I think for two main reasons, firstly, because that is how they were brought up to think and secondly, cost.I am generalising here ,but most Scots only know about the "expensive" end of the kilt world and have little or no knowledge of anything else.

I have been on this website now for just over a year and I still find it very hard to understand(actually I still don't) why people with Scots roots want more than one tartan.Ok,I hear it now! "But I am a Campbell,with a Scott mother,with a Kerr grandmother,and a MacAthur twenty third cousin etc., so I can wear all those tartans",well yes you can if you insist, but we in Scotland usually choose our farther's tartan or the one we are closly connected to and that is that.In this part of Scotland,whilst nothing would be said,you would be written off as a poser if you were to wear a tartan of more than one Clan .

For those with no connection to a tartan, then I can quite understand that there in not a loyalty issue and can see the attraction of wearing different tartans.I hasten to add that it is all down to personal choice and cost and others will and do choose to follow a differing path to me.

[Clockwork John]

Jock, I agree with you, for the most part. I wear Campbell (Black Watch) because my surname is Campbell. But I'm also looking at getting a kilt in either Campbell weathered or Campbell ancient... Maybe both some day. And since I don't know where in Scotland my Campbell ancestors came from, I may also get Campbell of Breadalbane, Campbell of Loudoun, Campbell of Loch Awe, etc... And then there's Campbell of Argyle, which is a fashion tartan... Other than that, I'm stiking to fashion tartans and district/national tartans.

My first kilt was Campbell of Argyle. My second kilt was Campbell (Black Watch). So was my third, and my fifth (All three are in different materials or weights). KIlt no. four was Scottish National. My first tank will definitely be Campbell or a variant thereof.

Each tartan I own, and each kilt I buy, will represent some aspect of who I am, and I am a very complex individual. I refuse to be tied down to just one tartan...

But more than anything, I'm a Campbell. I was born a Campbell and I will die a Campbell, and I will proudly wear the Campbell tartan primarily.

[Jock Scot]

Thank you C J.Can I make one thing clear, the Scots who think like me(perhaps I think like them!),would have no problem with a person wearing different tartans OF THE SAME CLAN,or a military tartan,provided that they had actually served in that unit,or,a pipe band tartan.Rather unsurprisingly, most Sots have no idea,or perhaps no interest in district or fashion tartans.

[Phil]

I wear my clan tartan and only my clan tartan and have done for over 60 years.Most Scots,not all, who actually own a kilt would think along these lines.

Most Scots I know don't actually own a kilt - they hire one for weddings, balls etc. and the tartan will be whatever is available. I own 2 kilts, the first one is a family tartan but the other is my father-in-law's which I didn't want to see going to a charity shop after he died so had it altered and wear it regularly. If anyone thinks I am posing then that is their opinion.

[Jock Scot]

Most Scots I know don't actually own a kilt - they hire one for weddings, balls etc. and the tartan will be whatever is available. I own 2 kilts, the first one is a family tartan but the other is my father-in-law's which I didn't want to see going to a charity shop after he died so had it altered and wear it regularly. If anyone thinks I am posing then that is their opinion.

Of course that is their opinion,but they are,at least, polite enough not to voice it.Its the Highland way.I have found to my cost that I have made the odd minor(I hope) faux pas in the past and have only discovered it 20 or 30 years later!

[McClef]

Many of us wear a tartan because we like it.

Only 2 out of my current 24 kilts are my Clan which is Robertson.

Not all the others are the tartans of other clans, but some are.