Significance of white in a tartan

[OC Richard]

An authentic tartan worn at Culloden.

[Troglodyte]

An authentic tartan worn at Culloden.

Mmmm, nice...

Highland Division regulation-issue Tropical Whites, do you think..?

[Jock Scot]

Mmmm, nice...

Highland Division regulation-issue Tropical Whites, do you think..?

Or, arctic camouflage and with a bit of good fortune it would blend in with the surroundings so well that no one will see it!

[SF Jeff]

An authentic tartan worn at Culloden.

Mmmm, nice...

Highland Division regulation-issue Tropical Whites, do you think..?

I think it's to pay tribute to all of the baby harp seals that have given their lives so we may have a proper full dress sporran.

Or... it's arctic camo.

[wcsgorilla]

Someone obviously started these myths but it's usually impossible to find the source. By contrast, I think I've managed to trace the source of the 'tartan was banned after Culloden/as part of Proscription' myth to an Annex in a book published in 1960.

Wait, what? I know I am going to hate myself for this but… that isn’t true??

[RGM1]

While I can imagine colors having significance intended by the designer of a tartan. That significance is their viewpoint and the rest of us don't necessarily get it or care.

[Troglodyte]

Wait, what? I know I am going to hate myself for this but… that isn’t true??

No, it's not true.

The Dress Act, as it was known, was part of the pacification of the Highlands following the failed Jacobite Rising of 1745. It bans garments, not the material - not tartan per se.

The Act prohibits the wearing of Highland dress by men and boys (not women and girls) ...within that part of Britain called Scotland, other than such as shall be employed as Officers and Soldiers in His Majesty's Forces, shall, on any pretext whatever, wear or put on the clothes commonly called Highland clothes (that is to say) the Plaid, Philabeg, or little Kilt, Trowse, Shoulder-belts, or any part whatever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland Garb; and that no tartan or party-coloured plaid of stuff shall be used for Great Coats or upper Coats, and if any such person shall presume after the said first day of August, to wear or put on the aforesaid garment or any part of them, every such person so offending ...

where such an offence shall be committed, shall suffer imprisonment without bail during the space of six months and no longer, and being confived of a second offence... to be transported to any of His Majesty's plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for the space of seven years.'

The garments mentioned were the fightng clothes - battledress if you like - of the Highlanders and tartan had become the political symbol of the Jacobite army. The fact that we are still moaning about it nearly 300 years later shows what smart move on the part of the British government it was, and how far it went to reduce the ability of the Highlander if he had any future ideas about rebellion.

Think of the Act in the same light as the disarming of Germany and Japan post-1945 and you get and understanding of the effect. And think of tartan as the same sort of symbol as the Confederate flag or the swastika and the government's reasoning becomes clear. For the time, the punishment was not very harsh.

It's not that tartan itself was banned, but few in the UK would have wanted to wear it anyway, due to its connotations, and the wide-reaching effect of the Act produced the effect of a ban.

However, it has been often written about, that demand for tartan in the New England colonies and West Indies saw a surge, which is why genuine old samples of tartan found in these places is of such value today.

Virtually the only acceptable tartan was that worn by the military - the Government Tartan or Black Watch - which would have been seen widely. There are some famous portraits of Highland gentry in tartan during the period of the ban, but if these were painted outside the Highland Line, no law would have been broken.

Samuel Johnson, on his well-documented journey through Scotland in the 1770s records how he saw Highlanders in their native dress, without fear of molestation by authority. This was 30 years (a generaion) or more after the act was introduced, so the inital fury had long-since died down by that time.

[figheadair]

An article in the Braemar Gathering souvenir programme from a few years ago talks informatively about tartan, giving the less well-informed than we are here a bit of an insight into origins and inspiration for new setts.

As an aside, when was this and who was the author?

[Jock Scot]

As an aside, when was this and who was the author?

I suspect that Mr. Thompson's book "So You Want To wear The Kilt" could well be responsible for many misconceptions on traditional kilt attire, I could be wrong but, I think it was printed for the American market and from memory, he was amongst other things, very keen on the "Mary Jane" style of shoe as well as the ghillie brogue as well.

I was brought up(1940's) by a large family of kilt wearers , who were of the opinion that brogue shoes were the way to go for day attire and for formal evening attire, a pair of light, in weight, black oxfords were the way to go. Anything else, like ghillie brogues and the "Mary Jane" things were considered to be unnecessary and frivolous. Over the many following years I see no reason to change those views. What others choose to do is entirely their affair.

[Troglodyte]

As an aside, when was this and who was the author?

Full details in due course...