Approximate Braveheart Tartan

[Ryan Ross]

I was referring to the warp and the weft being different, not the fact that it's asymmetric. I thought that tartan was a subset of plaid that had more strict rules in the same way that kilt is a subset of skirt. <puts on helmet>

Yeah, it's certainly a confusing topic, all this nomenclature.

But as I understand it, folks started calling tartan patterns "plaids" because that was the name of the garment most characteristically associated with being made from a tartan patterned fabric. Today, we have the fly plaid, the pipers plaid, the drummers plaid, lairds plaid, the day plaid, etc...

The proto-kilt was called the feilidh-mór, which is commonly termed in english , "belted plaid"; it was essentially an untailored piece of double width cloth, about 4 yards in length, that was gathered about the body and belted on in any number of different ways.

So in the old days, you might say that your "plaid" was your kilt.

But yes, the evolution of the kilt can seem confusing on first inspection, and goodness knows that all of the different names for various parts of highland clothing and tartan terminology can be highly confusing!

EDIT: And getting kind-of back on topic, what they wore in Braveheart WAS NOT a feilidh-mór!