Mixing tartans - yes or no?

[OC Richard]

Sorry I wasn't talking about pipers and drummers wearing different tartans from each other, but rather the mixing of tartans upon the same person, in this case the pipers wearing kilts of one MacDonald tartan and plaids of a different MacDonald tartan (though the two tartans only differ in one stripe). The drummers and drum major also have mixed tartans, but much less subtle, their plaids the same as the pipers but their kilts Cameron of Erracht.

In The Highlanders of Scotland (1860s) there is generally an attempt to match the hose (whether diced or tartan) to the kilt.

11 figures are wearing matching tartan hose.

17 are wearing diced hose made from two colours which appear in the kilt.

However 11 men are wearing diced hose which do not match the kilt.

Only 2 figures are wearing tartan hose in a tartan different from that of the kilt:



I love this, the way the yellow tartan hose complement the kilt while being completely different.


(Note that hose are made from two differing shades of red, rather than red and blue as one would expect given the tartan of the kilt.)