Tartan ( ), also known, especially in American English, as plaid (), is a patterned cloth consisting of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming repeating symmetrical patterns known as setts. Tartan patterns vary in complexity, from simple two-colour designs to intricate motifs with over twenty hues. Originating in woven wool, tartan is most strongly associated with Scotland, where it has been used for centuries in traditional clothing such as the kilt. Specific tartans are linked to Scottish clans, families, or regions, with patterns and colours derived historically from local natural dyes (now supplanted by artificial ones). Tartans also serve institutional roles, including military uniforms and organisational branding.
Tartan became a symbol of Scottish identity, especially from the 17th century onward, despite a ban under the Dress Act 1746 lasting about two generations following the Jacobite rising of 1745. The 19th-century Highland Revival popularised tartan globally by associating it with Highland dress and the Scottish diaspora. Today, tartan is used worldwide in clothing, accessories, and design, transcending its traditional roots. Modern tartans are registered for organisations, individuals, and commemorative purposes, with thousands of designs in the Scottish Register of Tartans.
While often linked to Scottish heritage, tartans exist in other cultures, such as Africa, East and South Asia, and Eastern Europe. The earliest surviving samples of tartan-style cloth are around 3,000 years old and were discovered in Xinjiang, China.
Etymology and terminology
The English and Scots word tartan is possibly derived from French meaning 'linsey-woolsey cloth'.Banks & de La Chapelle (2007), p. 57. Other hypotheses are that it derives from Scottish Gaelic or , meaning 'across' or 'crossing over';Scarlett (1990), p. 3. or from French or (occurring in 1454 spelled ) meaning 'Tartar cloth'. It is unrelated to the superficially similar word tarlatan, which refers to a very open-weave muslin similar to cheesecloth. Tartan is both a mass noun ("12 metres of tartan") and a count noun ("12 different tartans").
Today, tartan refers to coloured patterns, though originally did not have to be made up of a pattern at all, as it referred to the type of weave; as late as the 1820s, some tartan cloth was described as "plain coloured ... without pattern".Scarlett (1990), p. 11 Patterned cloth from the Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlands was called , meaning 'many colours'. Over time, the meanings of tartan and were combined to describe a certain type of pattern on a certain type of cloth. Sett The pattern of a particular tartan is called its sett. The sett is made up of a series of lines at specific widths which cross at right angles and blend into each other; the longer term setting is occasionally used. Sett can refer to either the minimal visual presentation of the complete tartan pattern or to a textual representation of it (in a thread count). Modern Terminology Today tartan is used more generally to describe the pattern, not limited to textiles, appearing on media such as paper, plastics, packaging, and wall coverings.Tuckett (2016), p. 2, citing: Cheape (2012), pp. 15–16. Plaid In North America, the term plaid is commonly used to refer to tartan.Cheape (2012), p. 15. Plaid, derived from the Scottish Gaelic meaning 'blanket',Telfer Dunbar (1979), p. 2. was first used of any rectangular garment, sometimes made up of tartan, which could be worn several ways: the belted plaid () or "great kilt" which preceded the modern kilt; the arisaid (), a large shawl that could be wrapped into a dress; and several types of shoulder cape, such as the full plaid and fly plaid. In time, plaid was used to describe blankets themselves. In former times, the term plaidingSee, e.g., Mackay (1924), p. 94, quoting: Burt (1726). or pladdingTelfer Dunbar (1979), p. 40, quoting: was sometimes used to refer to tartan cloth.
Weaving and design
Weaving construction
The Scottish Register of Tartans provides the following summary definition of tartan:
In more detail, traditional tartan cloth is a tight, staggered 2/2 twill weave of worsted wool: the horizontal weft (also woof or fill) is woven in a simple arrangement of two-over-two-under the fixed, vertical warp, advancing one thread at each pass. As each thread in the weft crosses threads in the warp, the staggering by one means that each warp thread will also cross two weft threads. The result, when the material is examined closely, is a characteristic 45-degree diagonal pattern of "ribs" where different colours cross.Scarlett (1990), p. 55. Where a thread in the weft crosses threads of the same colour in the warp, this produces a solid colour on the tartan, while a weft thread crossing warp threads of a different colour produces an equal admixture of the two colours alternating, producing the appearance of a third colour – a halftone blend or mixture – when viewed from further back.Banks & de La Chapelle (2007), p. 61. (The effect is similar to multicolour halftone printing, or cross-hatching in coloured-pencil art.) Thus, a set of two base colours produces three different colours including one blend, increasing quadratically with the number of base colours; so a set of six base colours produces fifteen blends and a total of twenty-one different perceived colours.Scarlett (1990), p. 46. This means that the more stripes and colours used, the more blurred and subdued the tartan's pattern becomes. Unlike in simple checker (chequer) or dicing patterns (like a chessboard), no solid colour in a tartan appears next to another solid colour, only a blend (solid colours may touch at their corners).Scarlett (1990), p. 23.
James D. Scarlett (2008) offered a definition of a usual tartan pattern (some types of tartan deviate from the particulars of this definition):
The sequence of thread colours in the sett (the minimal design of the tartan, to be duplicated – "the DNA of a tartan"), starts at an edge and either reverses or (rarely) repeats on what are called pivot points or pivots.Scarlett (1990), p. 62 In diagram A, the sett begins at the first pivot, reverses at the second pivot, continues, then reverses again at the next pivot, and will carry on in this manner horizontally. In diagram B, the sett proceeds in the same way as in the warp but vertically. The diagrams illustrate the construction of a typical symmetric (also symmetrical, reflective, reversing, or mirroring) tartan. However, on a rare asymmetric (asymmetrical, or non-reversing) tartan, the sett does not reverse at the pivots, it just repeats at them. An old term for the latter type is cheek or cheeck pattern.Scarlett (1990), p. 53. Also, some tartans (very few among traditional Scottish tartans) do not have exactly the same sett for the warp and weft. This means the warp and weft will have differing thread counts . Asymmetric and differing-warp-and-weft patterns are more common in madras cloth and some other weaving traditions than in Scottish tartan.
A tartan is recorded by counting the threads of each colour that appear in the sett. The thread count (or threadcount, thread-count) not only describes the width of the stripes on a sett, but also the colours used (typically abbreviated). Usually every number in a thread count is an even numberScarlett (1990), p. 51. to assist in manufacture. The first and last threads of the thread count are the pivots. A thread count combined with exact colour information and other weaving details is referred to as a ticket stampBlakely (2015), p. 13. or simply ticket.
There is no universally standardised way to write a thread count, but the different systems are easy to distinguish. As a simple example:
The thread count "/K4 R24 K24 Y4/" corresponds to a mirroring pattern of 4 black threads, 24 red threads, 24 black threads, 4 yellow threads, in which the beginning black and ending yellow pivots are repeated (after Y4/, the colours are reversed, first K24 then R24); this is a "full-count at the pivots" thread count. An equivalent notation is boldfacing the pivot abbreviations: K4 R24 K24 Y4. The same tartan could also be represented as "K/2 R24 K24 Y/2", in markup that indicates that the leading black and trailing yellow duplicated before continuing from these pivot points (after Y/2, the colours are reversed as Y/2 again, then K24, then R24); this is a "half-count at the pivots" thread count. In the older and potentially ambiguous style of thread-counting, without the "/" (or bold) notation, a thread count like "K4 R24 K24 Y4" is assumed to be full-count at the pivots, unless the author clearly indicates otherwise. In all of these cases, the result is a half-sett thread count, which represents the threading before the pattern mirrors and completes; a full-sett thread count for a mirroring (symmetric) tartan is redundant. A "/" can also be used between two colour codes (e.g. "W/Y24" for "white/yellow 24") to create even more of a shorthand threadcount for simple tartans in which half of the half-sett pattern is different from the other only in the way of a colour swap; but this is not a common style of thread-counting. An asymmetric tartan, one that does not mirror, would be represented in a full-sett thread count with "..." markup, as "...K4 R24 K24 Y4..." (after Y4, the entire pattern would begin again from K4).
Various writers and tartan databases do not use a consistent set of colour names and abbreviations,See "complaint" about this in: Scarlett (1990), pp. 55–56. so a thread count may not be universally understandable without a colour key/legend. Some recorders prefer to begin a thread count at the pivot with the colour name (or abbreviation) that is first in alphabetical order (e.g. if there is a white pivot and a blue one, begin with blue), but this is actually arbitrary.
Though thread counts are quite specific, they can be modified depending on the desired size of the tartan. For example, the sett of a tartan (e.g., 6 inches square – a typical size for kilts) may be too large to fit upon the face of a necktie. In this case, the thread count would be reduced (e.g. to 3 inches to a side). In some works, a thread count is reduced to the smallest even number of threads (often down to 2) required to accurately reproduce the design; in such a case, it is often necessary to up-scale the thread count proportionally for typical use in kilts and plaids.
Before the 19th century, tartan was often woven with thread for the weft that was up to 1/3 thicker than the fine thread used for the warp, which would result in a rectangular rather than square pattern; the solution was to adjust the weft thread count to return the pattern to square, or make it non-square on purpose, as is still done in a handful of traditional tartans. Uneven warp-and-weft thread thickness could also contribute to a striped rather than checked appearance in some tartan samples.Telfer Dunbar (1979), p. 88.