Box
pleated kilts made from four yards of cloth, in the style of the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries.
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The most popular choice for kilt cloth is, of course, tartan. What tartans do I offer? All of them! I order my cloth from four of Scotland's top woolen mills. Let me know what tartan you are interested in. I will get back to you and let you know what color schemes and weight ranges in which your tartan is available. If the tartan you need is not in the stock range of any of the major woolen mills, I will have it custom woven for you. So, with the rare exception of some copyrighted corporate tartans, I can literally provide you with any tartan you want -- even personal tartans. If you want your own personal tartan designed just for you, let me know.
Where can you see the tartans? I encourage you to browse the International Tartan Index (ITI) on the web site of the Scottish Tartans Authority (STA). What you will see on this site will be computer generated images. If you want to see the cloth itself before you purchase your kilt, let me know. In many cases, I can email you a photograph of the cloth. With any of the stock tartans, I can have the mill send out a sample swatch -- though it does sometimes take a few weeks to arrive. With custom weaves, of course no swatch is available until it is woven.
The ITI is the most complete database of tartans, and will contain many tartans that are not currently in commercial production. If you are interested only in browsing tartans that are available from stock from the major woolen mills, one site I recommend is TartanWeb.org. I am not affiliated with that web site, but they do provide a useful tool in showing the available tartans from most Scottish mills, using the "Tartan Search" bar at the top of their page.
If you need help in selecting a tartan, please write me. Helping people select a tartan to wear is what I do for a living at the Scottish Tartans Museum. People often pick a tartan based on a clan or family connection, but you can also wear a district tartan, a commemorative or corporate tartan, or a fashion tartan. Remember that there are no rules about which tartan you can wear. Feel free to just pick out one that you like! I can even design one, just for you.
Solids:
Of course, no one says that a kilt has to be made from a tartan. Solid color kilts have been worn for centuries. We have a portrait of the chief of the Campbells of Lochawe wearing a solid red great kilt c. 1635. Robert MacIan painted a few of his Highland figures in solid color kilts, as well, in the middle of the nineteenth century. The same Scottish woolen mills that weave tartan cloth also offer kilt weight worsted wool cloth in solid colors, including saffron, black, green, blue, gray, and others. |
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All content ©2005-2008 Matthew A. C. Newsome Albanach.org | The Scottish Tartans Museum | District-Tartans.com Member of the Scottish Tartans Authority
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Tartans: