What kilt 'should' I wear?

[bubba]

Black Stewart (Stewart Mourning) is an open tartan as far as I know, as are most of the Stewart tartans. Also, as far as I know, there is no specific British tartan. There is the Govt tartan, which some say is an old Campbell tartan. There are several connected to the Royals as well. What it really comes down to is you're free to wear almost any tartan you want, just learn a bit of the history of it. Offsetting that, many tartans are very recent creations and there really isn't any history to them. The Irish County tartans and corporate tartans are examples of that.

[Jerry]

Here is another great looking tartan



It is the Mass stste tartan. I think it looks similar to the Black Stewart

[David Thornton]

Stop by the liabrary and pick up a book on tartans & clans. It will be good reading and if you find a tartan you like, you can read up on it.

David

[Prester John]

If you are a dash Welsh, start there and get a Welsh tartan. Otherwise, go for a district, the USA St. Andrew's is very nice if you live here.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Black Watch is always available as well. And with the Welcsh, one of the Welsh tartans would be fine. I believe that there is a one kilt maker that only makes Welsh cilts.

[Southern Breeze]

Kiltstore has a list of "universal" tartans. Go to their site and click on tartan finder. Take a look at the FAQs also.
http://www.kiltstore.net/discount?discount=xmark04ljqr2

[Alan H]

The Holyrood tartan (see my recent thread about my new kilt) was designed in 1977 to celebrate the Queens 50th Jubilee. It's a lovely tartan, and there's absolutely no reason whatsoever that you shouldn't wear it.

Are you a Marine or US Navy? Both of those services have their own tartans. There's a Confederate tartan.

California has a state tartan. So do Texas, Minnesota and a bunch of other states.

Bob C. on this board has a kilt made out of a tartan specifically for the "Border Families"....not a particular family, but the Borders, so if your English ancestors were up near the borders, then why not?

Black Watch
Scottish National
National Millennium
Flower of Scotland
Caledonia
Holyrood
Warrior

These are all Scottish tartans that have no clan affiliations.

You can wear all of the "Stewart" tartans...Royal (red), Black (mourning), Hunting (green), Gray Stewart, or dress Stewart (white). Dress Gordon is fair game. Look, there's a Philipino guy in my office who regularly wears a flannel shirt made out of Dress Gordon. I had a pair of pajamas when I was growing up in Royal Stewart. As Matt Newsome has pointed out, you can buy shortbread in tins painted with Royal Stewart. So don't stress over wearing the Stewart tartans. Burberrys is marketing EN MASSE a line of clothing, including scarves, umbrellas, checkbook covers and handbags all in a variant of the Thompson tartan, primarily in "camel".

Or, if you really want to get a non-clan affiiated tartan, and get a really special kilt made, get in on the next XMarks tartan order and send the material to the kiltmaker of your choice. The XMarks tartan is the pattern you see as the background on this web page. Rocky at USA kilts would make you a killer 6-yard wool kilt out of that material.

[Robin]

Welsh National ITI nr.1523
Welsh National (fashion) ITI nr.2167
Flanders (=Belgian) ITI nr.2531 (lovely tartan...and very rare!)

And behold my Caladonia kilt! :mrgreen:

[macwilkin]

Black Watch is an English government tartan so is probably OK for anyone to wear without offending any clan purists.

I wouldn't make that remark around any Grants, Munros, or Campbells! ;)

Cheers,

Todd

[macwilkin]

I've noticed there's a Welsh national tartan, and I think I even saw a New Zealand national tartan. Does England have a national tartan other than the government one?

There are several tartans associated with English counties:

www.district-tartans.com/british.htm

And I should point out that the Government Sett, also known as the Black Watch tartan is not really an "English" tartan, since it was worn by a Scottish regiment, and a Highland one to boot, in service of the British crown.

I would recommend a district tartan, such as the Mass. state tartan, the US tartan, or one of the English or Welsh tartans. I personally like to see more folks wearing these, and the whole concept of a district tartan is very historical. Matt Newsome's web site that I cited above is a plethora of information on district tartans.

Cheers,

Todd