I am an Anderson, and have been proudly wearing a clan tartan (Modern) for over 5 years now. I have recently been exposed to several other Anderson kilts (also Modern) from various mills and noticed something peculiar... a lot of them are missing a color!

One of the things about the Anderson tartan that I understand is unique is that it uses 7 colors, while most tartans have 6 or fewer. In each case, they were missing one of the blues. The dominant color in the tartan is a lighter blue, often described as "azure," but there is a brighter, primary color blue that is less predominant, that is missing.

Is it even somewhat common for tartans to be missing a color entirely like this, or is this an odd quirk for the Andersons? Are there any other examples of this?

For what it's worth, mine has all 7 colors, so I'm not complaining!