Is wearing another families tartan inappropriate?

[Ayin McFye]

Greetings everyone. I currently own 3 kilts and so far all of which I know I have the right to wear. I wear a MacKenzie (Father's side of the family) and a Riley (Mother's side of the family) I also wear the Irish National Tartan a lot.

But my question is, is it rude or disrespectful to wear another families tartan? For instance if I really wanted to go out and buy the Buchanan Tartan because I liked it, would that be bad?

I wouldn't want to offend anyone so I thought I'd ask.

[McMurdo]

That would not be bad at all, if you ask me. Wear what you want, you might want to get some of the history of the tartan or clan.

[Nervous Jock]

No, wear it , enjoy it

[macwilkin]

Just be sure to post your question in the heraldry & tartans section, regardless of the answer!

Thread moved.

T.

[Andrew Green]

Buchanan is a very neat looking tartan, I am partial to the MacGregor and Hastie variant myself, but the "standard" does look quite nice. Just wear it respectfully and no one will complain.

[flairball]

No. Wear what you like. The problem is many people think one needs a "right" to wear a tartan in the first place. There is no such "right". A tartan is either adopted as officially recognized as a clan tartan by a clan or it isn't. This hasn't anything to do with "right to wear" "permission" or anything else that might exclude one from wearing the tartan. It's nice to wear a tartan that one has an attachment to, but it's also nice being "free" to do what you want. Like wearing a kilt in the first place.

BTW, which tartan are you thinking about? Buchanan? I see a MacTavish in my future. No connection though.

[pdcorlis]

Wear any family tartan with respect, know something about their clan history, and remember you are paying homage to them.

[Tattoo Bradley]

There are no tartan police. Wear that sucker and strut. Ask Ron About his "Loud McLeod"

[auld argonian]

As I said in an earlier thread, if you had to have a certificate of permission to buy a kilt in a specific tartan then the kiltmakers would be in deep doo-doo. I'd love to know how much the demand for kilts has gone up in the past couple of years but I'd bet that it's reasonably dramatic and if everybody was just getting one kilt in their clan tartan it couldn't be that great. As pdcorlis said, just know what you're wearing and learn the history...

I seem to remember someone telling the forum about being accosted by some guy...who was in PANTS...yelling "...hey, you....you're wearing MY tartan..." and teh X'smarkser having the extreme pleasure of saying..."...yeah, I am...but I see that you AREN'T so p*** off!" You might get one comment once in a great while but it's usually form someone who doesn't really know what they're talking about so don't sweat it.

Best

AA

[brandycr]

If you like it wear it I dont think anyone is a deadset stickler when it comes to the tartans.