Tartan Question

**kiltedsawyer** · 26th November 07, 01:47 PM

CBS Sunday Morning did a story on tartan yesterday morning. Actually it was entitled "Going Mad Over Plaid," and was more focused on current fashion than tartan, but the authors of the book featured made the statement that in order to be considered "tartan," the plaid had to be symmetrical. I thought there were some asymmetrical tartans out there. Any thoughts? Matt, as always, please chime in...............
Respectfully,
David

**Redshank** · 26th November 07, 02:08 PM

ah the press/media, folks who know everything about nothing in particular, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

You are correct in your assumptions that tartans are both symetrical and assymetrical, the Malcolm tartan is assymetrical, there must be others but this is the one that springs to mind.
The name Malcolm was established, as distinct from MacCallum, in 1770 when the 9th Chief of Poltalloch changed the family name to Malcolm. This may well be the sett on which the MacCallum was based "from the recollection of old people in Argyllshire" and which D.W. Stewart illustrated in silk in his book, 'Old and Rare..'. Wilson's of Bannockburn produced a symmetrical version of the Malcolm tartan.

Chris

**TheKiltedWonder** · 26th November 07, 02:15 PM

I think what they meant to say, and perhaps they mispoke or perhaps you misheard, because it gets terribly confusing, but I think they meant to say that a tartan must have the same pattern in the warp and the weft. That's what differentiates them from simple plaids. As for assymetric tartans, Campbell of Argyll is another.

**Archangel** · 26th November 07, 02:20 PM

I believe our beloved Maple Leaf is an assymetrical tartan also.

**Barb T** · 27th November 07, 06:54 AM

Kind of depends on what they meant by "symmetrical". We know what we mean by the term, but they may have been using it very loosely.

There's a lot of plaid fabric out there where the sequence of stripes in the warp doesn't match the sequence of stripes in the weft. If they don't match, it's not tartan. It's possible that this is what they meant by "not symmetrical".

Barb

**kiltedsawyer** · 27th November 07, 08:46 AM

Yes this does seem rather confusing. What was actually said was that rotating the plaid or tartan 90 or 180 degrees would not change the appearance. That sounds like the warp and weft being the same sequence, so now I'm wondering what an asymmetrical tartan looks like. I looked up the ones mentioned above on the tartan ferret but it seems the symmetry depends on how much of the tartan is viewed, does it not simply repeat and there by become symmetrical? Sorry to be so dense.
Thanks,
David

**kiltedsawyer** · 27th November 07, 08:51 AM

Okay, in looking at the correct Malcolm tartan I think I have it. The yellow stripe will always be to the left of the blue stripe, even when repeated. Got it.
Thanks again.

**Tattoo Bradley** · 27th November 07, 08:57 AM

Buchanan is also assymetrical...

**davedove** · 27th November 07, 09:22 AM

For a really simple explanation, consider a tartan with three stripes of different colors.

A symmetrical tartan would go red, yellow, blue, blue, yellow, red, red yellow, blue, etc.

The assymetrical would go red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, etc.

**Rampant Lion** · 27th November 07, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Barb T.

There's a lot of plaid fabric out there where the sequence of stripes in the warp doesn't match the sequence of stripes in the weft. If they don't match, it's not tartan. It's possible that this is what they meant by "not symmetrical".

Barb

Ok, now I'm a little confused. The warp and weft have to be the same for it to be tartan? Does that mean that the kilt here isn't made of tartan? Sorry, McClef, I'm not picking on you, it's just that I knew you had a kilt in this... tartan. (BTW, I love your outifit in this picture.)