Anothers tartan

[cookingkilted]

With this thread it makes me more comfortable to wear a tartan that is a named clan, when my last name is Kiser and the closest thing I know of to Celtic blood that I can trace is my step-grandfather who was a Kelly.

[tripleblessed]

Some discussion on mixed fiber and on PV, but didn't see any address of the OP's referenced kilt. The description
notes it is Teflon coated, which would make it good odds it is Marton Mills PV. PV is a mixed fiber in that it contains
polyester and viscose, or rayon, as we would say in the States. Hardwearing, easy to clean, less dear in the purchase
than wool. The referenced kilt is from bauhaus boy/Carse of Gowrie, several have reported good experience there.

Father Bill says better to save from scratch. I find the best way to save from scratch is to wear something between
you and the wool.

I have both wool and PV, like both. As for temperature, I have not worn my PVs out at temps below about 12 degrees
Fahrenheit, so I can't advise about cold weather wear. As I was not waiting an hour for a bus, or walking more than
a couple of blocks, I was OK in PV kilt and tee-shirt. Longer exposure at those or colder temps would seem to argue for wool. And probably a jacket. YMMV, and your expected usage is a factor.

[Steve Ashton]

The Thompson Camel Tartan is registered with the STA as #2421. It is dated circa 1960 and is listed as a fashion, not a clan Tartan. Due to its similarity to the Burberry it is often seen being used as a knock-off for Burberry.

It can be seen everywhere. So would suggest that very few would regard wearing Thompson Camel as infringing on a Clan.

[Nathan]

I come from the school of thought that it is in the best taste to wear only a tartan to which one has a legitimate connection. I am a MacDonald of Clanranald and so I wear the MacDonald of Clanranald tartan.

Like the Chattan example Jock provided, I also wear the Clan Donald modern tartan. Any MacDonald, regardless of branch (we have several), can wear that tartan. In fact, although my own chief's kilt is in the Clanranald 1914 tartan, his day plaid and tartan trews are in the generic Clan Donald tartan. I got my first kilt used and it was in the generic MacDonald tartan. It was also, conveniently, my regimental tartan. When I was having a kilt sewn up by my brother Xavier, for my brother Cory's wedding, I went with Clanranald modern.

Although Jock correctly points out that most Scots own one kilt in their own tartan, being on xmarks promotes an addiction I like to refer to as HKAS (Highland Kit Acquisition Syndrome). Therefore, although knowledgable, the Rabble should not be considered, the norm.

To the point of legitimate connections combined with HKAS, although it would be an unnecessary extravagance, I would have no objection to also wearing any other kilt to which I had a similar direct connection such as:
Cape Breton Island
Nova Scotia
Maple Leaf

I have dozens of other Highland and Scottish names in my family tree, Thompson among them, but wouldn't wear their kilt. For me, it's a question of who I'm representing. I choose to rep my own clan. The fact that I also have MacDougall, MacNeil, MacInnes, Thompson and a boat load of others, while interesting, does not change my clan affiliation.

One man, one clan. One clansman, one chief.

If you're not of Scottish heritage, there are many generic tartans from which to choose. Those in the Commonwealth have HRH EIIR as their Chief so all subjects can happily wear Royal Stewart or the government sett.

There is, of course, the notable exception of uniforms. Wearing the tartan of your pipe band or military regiment is perfectly acceptable.

A final note about the permission above. Although there is nothing stopping you from wearing the Thompson tartan, a random Thompson clansman doesn't have the authority to grant you any type of permission regarding the affairs of Clan Thompson. As with any clan, that right is reserved to the chief. Similarly, joining a clan society doesn't make you a member of that clan.

Only your name by way of adoption or bloodline can make you a member of a clan. This goes for sept names also who are descended from a person loyal to the clan chief.

That is not to say that you can't wear a tartan without the chief's permission. You certainly can and nobody will arrest you. You just shouldn't. It goes against the nearly 200 year old tradition of clan tartans. Why wear the kilt if you don't respect its enduring traditions?

[Steve Ashton]

Quoted from above
"Only your name by way of adoption or bloodline can make you a member of a clan. This goes for sept names also who are descended from a person loyal to the clan chief. "
Let's no get too rigid in our wording and forget that any person, of any name, may approach any Clan Chief and request to join the Clan. That is how Septs got started.

[Nathan]

Quoted from above
"Only your name by way of adoption or bloodline can make you a member of a clan. This goes for sept names also who are descended from a person loyal to the clan chief. "
Let's no get too rigid in our wording and forget that any person, of any name, may approach any Clan Chief and request to join the Clan. That is how Septs got started.

Right you are. My point was just that joining a clan association was not the same as joining a clan as was suggested in an earlier point. It's a good clarification though.

[MacLowlife]

There was a recent thread that talked about many people's tendency to call anything green "Black Watch". Thanks to advertising ( and Chavs- if it is OK to use that term) the Burberry Nova Check and its coincidental lookalike, the Thompson Camel, may be displacing BW as the most "recognized" tartan. My own contrarian leanings would make me avoid Thompson like the plague, but you may do what you like, as has been already said.

The Clan Thompson webpage says it is "popular for car rugs and a lesser extent for fashion." Talk about your faint praise. I can't imagine their defending its exclusive use in any serious way.

And, just in case you ARE going to wear it, why not say "My cousins are Thompsons" instead of "My uncle by marriage is a Thompson"?

[David Thorpe]

A final note about the permission above. Although there is nothing stopping you from wearing the Thompson tartan, a random Thompson clansman doesn't have the authority to grant you any type of permission regarding the affairs of Clan Thompson. As with any clan, that right is reserved to the chief.

Nathan, I agree wholeheartedly with your post.
However, I would point out that there is no "Clan Thompson" per se. Thompson is a direct Anglicization of MacTavish, meaning "son of Thomas", and many, but not all Thompsons regard themselves as being of Clan MacTavish. We have many active Thompsons in Clan MacTavish USA.
Several years ago a splinter group broke off and petitioned the Lyon Court for recognition as "Clan Thompson". They were granted recognition as a clan association - a corporate entity, but not as a clan. Their website understandably omits this point. The Clan Thompson Association has no Chief.
This is a huge can of very stinky worms, and I will not discuss it further here. I probably should have limited my post to something like, "The Chief of Clan MacTavish does not consider Thompson Camel an official clan tartan." - and left it at that.

No hijack is intended here. Apologies for what some may consider a trivial sidebar.

[creagdhubh]

I can think of one exception. Are there more? Members of the Clan Chattan confederation, could wear the Clan Chattan tartan and their Clan named tartan. For example a Davidson could wear both.

Precisely, Jock. As a Macpherson, I choose to only wear Macpherson tartans, or the Clan Chattan tartan.

[ThistleDown]

To add to Jock's remarks about the Clan Chattan. Clan Chattan is one of the 'super clans', confederations of smaller entities gathered together over the centuries as a result of marriages or the need for defense through numbers. The difference between Chattan and the others is that the individual clans retained their own identities and were not even encouraged to take the names of those who held the lands on which they lived. Small and primarily landless families with names such as Gow, Tarril, Andrish and Clark were not septs of the larger constituent clans but clans themselves in the older meaning of the word: descended of one ancestor.

Others -- like Shaw, Farquharson, MacRitchie, MacThomas -- were offshoots of Mackintosh lines spreading out from the old lands. They took new patronymics but stayed within the super clan. Some -- Macpherson, Cattanach, Macphail, Macbean, Macdhaibhidh-- probably were left-overs from the centuries older Clan Chattan of Lochaber and who knows where before that. Then there were the incomers, Macgillivray, Macqueen and some Maclean and Macintyre lines settled in the lands from Badenoch to the Moray Firth.

It's a bit ludicrous to think that there was ever a common tartan for all these, even at the height of 19C inventiveness. In fact, it wasn't until the death in 1938 of Alfred Mackintosh, the 28th chief of Mackintosh and 29th of Clan Chattan, that Lord Lyon appropriated to the clan two tartans that had originally been Mackintosh. One of these is now called Clan Chattan and is accepted by all the constituent chiefs.