Do any of the weathered tartans have official clan recognition?

[Willie T]

I recently found out that the clan I'm descended from, Clan Mackintosh, only recognizes four official tartans - the Clan Modern, Clan Ancient, Hunting Modern, and Hunting Ancient - but the Weathered Clan and Weathered Hunting do not have official recognition. Is that the case with most weathered tartans for other clans?

[Jock Scot]

I cannot speak for Clan Mackintosh, but I suspect the omission may just be an oversight. On the other hand the Clan Chief may have a real dislike to the weathered hues, I don't know. I wonder if our resident expert on that particular Clan may venture a comment? As far as I am aware and speaking generally, weathered Clan tartans are really a non issue.

[figheadair]

I agree with Jock, generally speaking Weathered hues are generally a personal fancy. Essentially they are the same tartan although technically one could argue that, unlike Modern, Ancient and Muted shades, Weathered colours are actually a colour change, brown for black etc., and not just a shade change; light, dark or mid. However, going down that route would be a whole world of pain so we classify Weathered shades like the others, as merely a shade variation of X tartan.

[Macman]

I am not the resident expert of whom Jock speaks, but I had never heard that the weathered tartans were not officially recognized by the chief. I happily wear my weathered hunting Mackintosh.

[ThistleDown]

It is just personal preference, as has been noted. The present chief prefers this red Mackintosh for himself.

[Balaamsass51]

"Official clan recognition" is a bit tricky. If there is a living clan chief he (or she) decides on the "official" clan tartan. Which might be (and has been) changed when a new chief takes over. Remember, the over 11,500 current registered tartans are all unique by virtue of how they are woven. I'm taking thread counts. Not color. Tartan is not the color. Weaving patterns only say red, black, green etc. Some will specify dark or light colors.

So there are at least two things to consider - if you buy tartan, each mills dyes will differ. A red from Locharron will be different than a red from Marton Mills which will be different than a red from House of Edgar etc. So get a swath before ordering. (Also that red dye will change over time from the same mill, which is why when you buy that kilt from Locharron and then decide 10 years later that you need a fly plaid, they will not match).

More importantly, since tartan is not any specific color (yellow is 597-577 angstroms in wavelength, blue 492-456 angstroms for instance) the mills may make any tartan up in any "color" that is within those wavelengths. So, how do we sell more tartan? Why, weave the same tartan in different hues, tints, shades and tones of course!

So "Ancient" simply means the mill is trying to replicate what they think the tartan would have looked like in the original organic dyes (resulting in lighter colors which many prefer because you can see the patterns better - admit it, those blocks of black, green, blue pretty much blend together) Or "Weathered", they try and replicate what the thing would look like if left out in the sun or was washed with lye soap a hundred times. Other designations such as "muted" are simply nomenclature changes by different mills.

Bottom line - if you like it wear it.

Matt