I am seeing lots of lines in front of my eyes...

[Melly]

Hello all
I am a bonnie scottish lassie who some man has decided to make an honest woman and am to be wed sometime soon. Got my heart set on a tartan wedding frock and am looking through many tartans but struggling. Want a clean bright mainly white tartan with no black in it, dont mind grey but dont want black. Anyone got any suggestions? Would be most grateful. Cheers, Melly.

[Hothir Ethelnor]

Tartans with alot of white are usually reffered to as dance or dress variations.

D.C. Dalgliesh has (probably) the largest stock selection of white tartan variants (for highland dancers.)

Check them out here.

http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/dress-tartans.html

Is there any family association that would lead you to choose a particular sett?

[MacLowlife]

I am guessing you want silk, probably either dupioni or taffeta. If you aren't concerned about a particular family or clan tartan, you might look on eBay at the many fabrics that may or may not be "true" ( i.e, registered ) tartans, but that follow the tartan design rules- symmetry, mostly. I found some very pretty gold, silver and white plaid a few years ago from this eBay seller, who is in India:

http://shop.ebay.com/exclusive_silks...sacat=0&bkBtn=

My sweetie and I intended to use that plaid as "our" "wedding tartan". Sadly, that plan fell by the wayside, but I still think it was a good idea. If you are not wedded (sorry) to a particular design other than tartan/check/plaid , maybe you can find something that will work for you. There are other people selling nice silk checks at about $12 a metre or so, though not necessarily true tartans. Wishing you and your lucky man every happiness- and a lot of patience and love to get you through the process.

[Hothir Ethelnor]

Oh, did I mention?

Dalgliesh weaves silk tartan. (pretty expensive though...) I think they only do special order silk not keeping any in stock.

http://www.dcdalgliesh.co.uk/silk.html

[fluter]

One attractive option is a white gown with tartan accents, or a white gown with a tartan sash. You could keep your white color scheme, but use a clan, district, or other tartan that may be meaningful to your families. With less yardage of fabric required, you really could use a nice (pricey) silk fabric.

Celtic Croft: custom gowns. Other retailers of highland clothing will likely provide similar custom services. There may be some ideas in this thread of discussion.

If you don't have a connection to a particular tartan, some the ones that suggest Scotland as a whole might be Caledonia, Isle of Skye, Holyrood Silver. Those are just my picks, you'll find more!

Some of the white-based "dress" tartans are more or less based on familiar clan tartans, and some seem to be strictly fashion tartans.

from blessedly rainy South Carolina, and best wishes to you both.

[ForresterModern]

Surprised that no one has mentioned clan dress tartans. If you have a relation to a specific clan look up that clans' tartans, and see if they have a "dress" version of it. Most dress tartans have a majority white background , usually with an overlay of something resembling the regular tartan design, just with the white substituted for one of the major background colors, often the dominant red. Most of the dance tartans are considered dress tartans. Otherwise simply do a search of dress tartans and see if you find one you like. Dress Stewart is lovely and only has a little bit of black in some thin stripes.

Good luck.

jeff

[be da veva]

Surprised that no one has mentioned clan dress tartans.
Good luck.

jeff

Pssiittt jeff... 1st line of the 1st post...

[sfb]

The Tartan Ferret has options to search based on colours, as well as keywords & stuff.

Haven't played about with it enough to know if the results are terribly true to the search terms, but it's maybe worth a look.

[ForresterModern]

Pssiittt jeff... 1st line of the 1st post...

Yeah. Sorry. Saw it on the re-read. Guess that is what I get for trying to eat lunch, talk business on the phone, and cruise the forum simultaneously.

[O'Callaghan]

Surprised that no one has mentioned clan dress tartans. If you have a relation to a specific clan look up that clans' tartans, and see if they have a "dress" version of it. Most dress tartans have a majority white background , usually with an overlay of something resembling the regular tartan design, just with the white substituted for one of the major background colors, often the dominant red. Most of the dance tartans are considered dress tartans. Otherwise simply do a search of dress tartans and see if you find one you like. Dress Stewart is lovely and only has a little bit of black in some thin stripes.

Good luck.

jeff

I once read that dress tartans originated by substituting white for red in clan tartans during victorian times, on the theory that only a 'lady of the night' would wear red, although men wearing red was not considered to be a problem.

OTOH, modern dress tartans may have red in them, can be worn by men, and needn't be worn only for dances. Girls appearing in Scottish dance competitions do, however, universally seem to wear dress tartans.