Tartans other than your family?

[Legba]

My advice: Buy and wear proudly a kilt in any tartan you like. Do it everywhere and whenever you feel like it, provided possible and appropriate.

Well said GG.

[OC Richard]

Originally there were no such things as family, clan, district, or regimental tartans, no concept at all of connecting a tartan pattern with anything.

Tartan was simply decorative.

In a way we have come full circle, because after the early 19th century craze for named clan tartans we again have many tartans designed simply to be lovely and worn simply because people like the look of them, like Auld Scotland and Spirit of Scotland etc etc.

Wear whatever tartan strikes your fancy!

Oh I could wear MacDonald Lord of the Isles red due to a MacDonald/Kintyre/Arran connexion and it's as authentic as any, based on one of the several tartans shown in this painting



Or I could wear MacDonald of the Isles, a pretty enough tartan though designed by mental English posers.

Or one of the genuine MacDonald tartans which date to the 18th century.

Or one of the new Cornish tartans due to my Cornish side.

Or the Cavan tartan, designed in the 1980s by a Scottish mill, due to my Cavan side.

Or the West Virginia tartan or the California tartan or a USA tartan or many many others!

But instead I wear a tartan I like the look of, Drummond of Perth, an authentic early 18th century tartan to boot.

[westy1970]

My personal feeling on it, and I went with my gut, is that there should be a connection to the family in question. Not that I would say anything to someone who doesn't share nor would I think anything less of someone for doing. I know for me, I would feel strange doing it.