How To Find Out If A Pattern Is A Tartan

[Bluethunder90]

How do I find out if a pattern is a tartan? I have a pattern on a blanket that I would love to have on a kilt but I'm not sure if it is a tartan or not, much less where I look to try to find a kilt in that pattern or a similar pattern.

[kilted2000]

Here is a good place to start.
https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/az

[Steve Ashton]

I think what you meant to ask is if your design is a named or registered Tartan.

The word Tartan as it has been used traditionally, meant any design of horizontal and vertical colored lines in a pattern that is the same horizontally as it is vertically. So forming squares.
And - that there are at least two pivot points where the design is a mirror image on each side of the pivot.

Today there are designs that break both of these 'rules'.

A named Tartan is any design that has been given a name. By the person wo designed the Tartan, the weaver, or anyone else.

A Registered Tartan is a design that has been submitted to some governing body and meet the requirements of that body.
Today the "Official" governing body is "The Scottish Register of Tartan.
The requirements to be listed on the Register are -
"A new tartan must meet the definition of tartan contained in the Scottish Register of Tartans Act (2008)
It must be a new design, unique to the Register, and
There must be a clear link between the person registering the tartan and the proposed tartan name"

The inclusion and listing of a design on the Register does not give or imply any "official" status. The only way a design can be considered "Official" is that some one, or some body, adopts is as their "Official" design.

There are designs that may meet only one, some, or all of these criteria, or none at all.

What is usually say is that "all Tartans are plaids, but not all plaids are Tartan."

[Bluethunder90]

Here is a good place to start.
https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/az

That was where I originally went, but there are several thousand entries (1100 under the first two letter's of the alphabet alone) so searching through the entire thing isn't feasible.

[Bluethunder90]

I think what you meant to ask is if your design is a named or registered Tartan.

Yes. If I knew it was a named tartan then I can simply buy a kilt in that specific tartan, as opposed to trying to have one custom-made. Someone suggested I search the Scottish Register of Tartans, but there are thousands of entries so clicking on each one separately isn't feasible, so I guess I'll just have to try to have one made and if it turns out to be a named tartan, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

[Steve Ashton]

OK you are looking for a name to go with the design you posted?

And want to know if it is readily available from a weaver or if you would need to commission a custom weave?


Being from a blanket it is likely that it is what we call a fashion Tartan. Which means only that no application for listing has been received.

If we can't determine the name of this one can you tell us what about it you like so we can try to find one similar to what you like.

[Bluethunder90]

OK you are looking for a name to go with the design you posted?

And want to know if it is readily available from a weaver or if you would need to commission a custom weave?

Yes, exactly!

Being from a blanket it is likely that it is what we call a fashion Tartan. Which means only that no application for listing has been received.

If we can't determine the name of this one can you tell us what about it you like so we can try to find one similar to what you like.

Primarily I like the color. Gray is one of the default colors that I primarily wear, along with black, followed by dark blue, green, and brown. 99% of my clothes are one of those colors.
I like the color of that blanket because it's understated but because it's a plaid it's still interesting. It has a bit of color with the red strip, but even that is toned down. It's a dark and serious color and pattern but it's not gloomy.
As an example of how my taste run, I already have one kilt in the Black Watch tartan, and I plan to buy another in the Black Stewart tartan.

[Bluethunder90]

OK you are looking for a name to go with the design you posted?

And want to know if it is readily available from a weaver or if you would need to commission a custom weave?


Being from a blanket it is likely that it is what we call a fashion Tartan. Which means only that no application for listing has been received.

If we can't determine the name of this one can you tell us what about it you like so we can try to find one similar to what you like.

After your last post, I refined my search to read Gray Fashion Tartan, (I hadn't run across the term fashion tartan before) and stumbled onto a website where I found this. This is the closest I've seen so far. The Hebridean Heather tartan.

[OC Richard]

Yes that's in House of Edgar's "Hebridean range"

https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...idean-tartans/

But there are quite a few grey/black/burgundy fashion tartans around, that colour scheme is popular with Kilt Hire.

Auld Lang Syne (grey) from Marton Mills

https://martonmills.com/product/auld-lang-syne/

Thompson Grey

https://martonmills.com/product/thomson-grey/

There's Lindsay Ancient Hunting, but it has some green too

https://martonmills.com/product/lindsay-a-h/

Sort of like that is Houston's St Mirren

https://www.kiltsforhire.com/product-page/st-mirren-1