Fabric of the Nation
There is a little tartan flag on the moon. Commander Alan Bean, pilot of Apollo 12's lunar module, planted it there in 1969, just a few months after Neil Armstrong had stuck an American Stars & Stripes into the same lunar surface. Both astronuauts were proud of their Scottish roots.
The flag serves as a powerful symbol for a textile design that is the ever-burning beacon of a small nation that has always travelled well.
Tartan has survived a Royal ban, witnessed some of the greatest battles in modern warfare, added colour to fashion catwalks and been emblazoned on the sides of passenger jets and Formula One cars.
From clan chiefs to pop stars, from Holyrood to Hollywood, tartan is truly the fabric of a nation – and it is just as prominent now, in Scotland, and all over the world, and beyond, as it has ever been throughout its colourful history.
A chequered past
The journey to trace the origins of tartan takes us far from the Highlands of Scotland, and the lunar highlands of the moon, to the arid desert of western China and the Silk Road, the ancient caravan route through the heart of Asia. It is here in the shifting sands of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang that the earliest tartan remnant was found.
Takla Makan means "go in and you'll never come out" but thankfully sometime around the 16th century an intrepid Swedish explorer, Sven Heden, managed to survive the hazardous desert crossing and emerge from the other side having made an incredible discovery.
He stumbled across the burial place of well-preserved mummies who, despite being in China, had all the facial characteristics of Caucasians. The textiles Heden found in their final resting place were beautifully woven from wool yarn, amongst which were flawlessly preserved, intricate tartans dating from between 1200 and 700 BC – which bore a striking similarity to Celtic tartans from northwest Europe.
Perhaps these early travellers were the victims of a natural disaster or were simply swallowed up by the fickle dangers of the desert. Celts are thought to have come originally from the southeast of Russia around the Caspian Sea, gradually heading westwards to Britain and France. Were these tartan-clad people early Scots?
After this ancient appearance, tartan seemed to disappear from the history books until the sixteenth century. It most probably always existed as an art form and clothing in the wild, isolated Highlands of Scotland but few visitors ventured that far north to see the 'Scotch savages' who donned it. The odd Scottish mercenary who went gallivanting in Europe at the time was often noted for his outlandish gear – and even then there was much gossiping among ladies of the day as to what, if anything, was worn under their colourful garb. So obviously Sir Sean was no the first Scot with sex appeal.
And the word tartan is thought to come from the French tiretaine, which was in use around this time, and referred to a half-wool, half-linen plaid design of Scottish origin.
Also, a German woodcut dating from about 1631 shows the closest example of the complex patterns of what we now recognise as tartan. The scene showed Highland mercenaries, in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, a war-faring Swedish king, wearing tartan kilts.
The '45 rebellion and the tartan ban
Contrary to modern popular belief tartan patterns have no traceable historical links with specific Scottish families or clans but the emergence of the romantic, politically rebellious image of tartan and its association with clans springs from arguably the most tragic event in Scottish history – the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of the deposed King James II, sparked the so-called '45 rebellion. Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland that year in an attempt to reclaim the throne for his father James Stuart, the Old Pretender. Charlie raised the Scottish clans in rebellion against the British monarch, King George II. The Jacobite uprising – from Jacobus, the Latin form of James – and Charles' decision to adopt Highland dress as the uniform for his army at Culloden resulted in tartan becoming the symbol of the Jacobites.
A host of Highland clans in traditional dress swelled the Young Pretender Charlie's army and after a narrowly failed attempt to march on London, his 5,000-strong Jacobite force were brutally defeated at Culloden Moor, near Inverness, by a mixed British army led by the Duke of Cumberland. The aftermath of the battle was long and bitter with scores of Highland communities forced to flee from their homes.
The carrying of weapons and the wearing of tartan and Highland dress were outlawed, with the tartan ban enforced by the 1746 Dress Act. The British government wanted to humiliate the Highlanders, crush the spirit of the clan chiefs and stifle the rebellion. But, as is often the case with prohibition of any kind, banning tartan made it seem more, rather than less, important and elevated it to a kind of cult status, with many Highlanders flouting the ban. By 1782, with the ageing Bonnie Prince Charlie in exile in Italy, the Government decided that Jacobite resistance was over and the ban on tartan and Highland dress was repealed.
Clan Tartan, Wilsons of Bannockburn and the Great Pretenders
District tartans existed in so much as certain communities could be identified by the tartan they wore, and the clans at Culloden gave the first hint of tartan being used as a clan uniform. But this only emerged because each community had their own weaver who would produce the same distinct tartan for those living in close geographical proximity to each other. A weaving firm, Wilsons of Bannockburn, who had continued to make and supply tartan, mainly to the military and to sell abroad, during the years of the ban from 1746-82, is credited with the 'invention' of clan tartans. Between 1765 and 1924, when William Wilson and Son went out of business, the firm scoured the Highlands in search of old patterns to re-introduce under new names if the original district or clan could not be determined. The Cockburn Collection of named samples, compiled by Wilsons between 1810 and 1820, can be found in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.
True to the age it was a pair of chancers, claiming they were the long lost grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who were to supplement Wilsons' collection with a highly suspect, yet ultimately valuable, tartan tome of their own. In 1822 two brothers, John Hay Allen and Charles Stuart Hay Allen, fooled a gullible Edinburgh society into believing they had discovered an ancient manuscript detailing the patterns of various clan tartans. They were greatly feted and in 1842 published the grandly titled Vestiarium Scoticum containing colour illustrations of 75 tartans. The book was a huge success among clan chiefs and weavers and its contents were never questioned at the time. The book was later proved to be a giant hoax – the vast majority of the 'old' clan tartans had been dreamed up by Charles the illustrator! But despite the scam, the book has played an important role in the history of Scottish tartans and many of the dubious tartans have become official clan tartans.
The Scottish Parliament is about to create the first ever Scottish Register of Tartans. This will build on the work of the registers currently held in private hands – and which contain over 6000 tartan designs – to create a definitive, independent and permanent national register of tartan. The project is a unique collaboration between the Scottish Government, Jamie McGrigor MSP, the Scottish tartan industry, the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms and the National Archives Scotland to make the existing archives of tartan more widely available and to help preserve and promote what is one of Scotland's most iconic and valuable assets.
Nowadays a charitable organisation called the Scottish Tartan Authority, formed in 1996 by Scotland's leading weavers and tartan retailers, is the world's leading information source on tartans and Highland dress. It maintains the de facto register of historical and contemporary tartans and acts as the Registrar for all new tartans and is frequently commissioned to design new variations of the famous fabric for everyone from football clubs to midwives.
But who has the 'right' to wear this tartan or that tartan? A myth often bandied about is that you can't wear a tartan unless you have the same name as the tartan but this is a rather quaint, out-dated idea that has thankfully become defunct. The truth is you can wear almost any tartan that takes your fancy, regardless of the clan, but most people usually want to sport one with which they feel they have some family link, however tenuous.
The Royal seal of approval
George IV's 1822 visit to Edinburgh was a turning point in spreading the popularity of tartan as it began to be internationally recognised as representative of Scottish, rather than merely Highland Scottish identity. Known for his extravagant lifestyle the newly crowned King headed north of the border for a colourful national pageant, choreographed by the famous romantic novelist Sir Walter Scott. The portly king donned a version of Highland dress made of the newly invented Royal Stuart tartan and was surrounded by Highland chieftains and Lowland lairds bedecked in tartan. The "collective hallucination", as the show was wittily described at the time, provided a huge boost to the weaving industry, generations of whom had suffered during the tartan ban, and was a brilliant marketing vehicle for Scottish tourism – both of which have endured to the present day.
This royal endorsement of tartan was continued into the Victorian era, the age of romanticism. Queen Victoria, along with her consort Prince Albert, both enthusiastic fans of all things 'Highland', decorated their beloved Scottish home at Balmoral Castle on Deeside from top to toe in tartan, increasing its fashionability in Britain, France, and elsewhere.
Almost 200 years later some 8,000 clan members and 30,000 visitors will congregate in Edinburgh for another royal pageant to rival that of George IV's. Prince Charles is to be the patron of The Gathering 2009, which will bring together clan representatives from all over the world at Holyrood Park. The Scottish Government is promoting 2009, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, as the Year of Homecoming, in an effort to attract people worldwide who have Scottish roots. The two-day event, on July 25/26, will be the first time since Walter Scott's Royal Pageant that so many clans have assembled in the Scottish capital.
The fabric of modern fashion
While George IV, trussed up in all his tartan finery, would have fancied himself as quite the Highland dandy, little could he have imagined how fashionable tartan would still be two centuries later.
Tartan creations by famous modern-day fashion designers Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Sir Hardy Amies were on display alongside 19th century Highland Regiment uniforms in a 2007 exhibition, at the National Museum of Costume near Dumfries, that explored the history of tartan in clothing as it has evolved through the ages – from battledress to ball-gowns, military uniforms to bondage trousers.
Tartan is all the rage today and rarely off the fashion catwalks of the top couture houses, from New York to London, Paris to Milan.
The flamboyant Westwood, an innovator of punk and new wave styles in the 1970s and 80s, has continually embraced tartan in her collections and is a faithful client of the Lochcarron mill in the Scottish borders, creating a host of new tartans in conjunction with their design team. She has used the fabric in a variety of boundary-pushing designs, which have influenced other major designers such as Alexander MacQueen (a good Scottish name), Tommy Hilfiger (reportedly a descendant of Robert Burns), Jean-Paul Gaultier (well-known wearer of the kilt), Jimmy Choo (an offspring of the Mchines?) and more.
Unlike so many fashions that never make the leap from the haute couture of the catwalk to the high-street stores, tartan has become ubiquitous in popular chains such as Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, Next and Debenhams.
And Burberry, whose world-famous trademarked check first appeared in the 1930s as a raincoat lining, now occupies a weird place in the fashion world. It graces many expensive luxury products while being the most bootlegged tartan in existence, hugely popular with so-called 'chavs' who snap up 'versions' of Burberry sports gear at street markets all over the UK. Yet, even more strangely, the brand continues to thrive at both extremes of the market.
Scotland's other famous fabrics
But it's not just tartan that inspires today's top fashion designers. Dubbed 'the new Alexander MacQueen', Christopher Kane has been working in tandem with the famous Scottish cashmere firm Johnstons of Elgin to produce a commercial cashmere collection. Kane, who is from a small village near Motherwell, was voted 2007 Scottish Designer of the Year. He recently designed a capsule collection for Top Shop and turned down a job offer from Donatella Versace – who hasn't taken Kane's snub personally and he has become her favourite fashion consultant. The increasingly high profile, yet unassuming, 24-year-old's continuing work with Johnstons Cashmere provides a massive boost to the Scottish cashmere industry.
And three years ago giant American sportswear manufacturer Nike gave another iconic, yet ailing, Scottish fabric a much-needed shot-in-the-arm. Harris Tweed, a luxury cloth produced in the Western Isles of Scotland, was once seen as the favoured attire of the upper classes and Royalty. But fashion changed and the tweed producers fell on hard times. Then in 2004 Nike approached Donald John MacKay, a weaver on the Isle of Harris, with an idea to update a 1980s basketball shoe called The Terminator by using Harris Tweed. The trainer was a roaring success and the industry benefitted enormously from an unlikely partnership.
Today the textiles sector in Scotland has an annual turnover of over £1 billion with the thriving tartan industry generating more than £350m of that total to the Scottish economy every year and supporting more than 4,000 jobs.
From humble beginnings tartan has grown to become an internationally recognised symbol of 'Scottishness', helping to promote Scotland around the world and boost the country's tourism industry. Events, such as Tartan Day in the US and Canada, have capitalised on the image of tartan as an attractive, contemporary fashion textile, while it also feeds the growing genealogical tourism market with those fascinated by their Scottish heritage who are eager to adopt their family's tartan or create a new one.
Nearly forty years ago, the American astronaut Alan Bean took half a yard of his ancestor's tartan on the Apollo 12 mission, agreeing to leave half of it on the moon and bring half of it back for deposit in the Clan MacBean archives. And on a clear, cloudless night, with a giant telescope, well, who knows, you might just be able to see a glimmer of its vibrant red sett, an enduring emblem for Scotland and its well-travelled national fabric.
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