A Tasteful Use of Tartan

[Jim_Ruley]

After reading the thread on "Historically Accurate Kilts" I did a little digging and discovered some information which may be of interest to those who wish to incorporate a Scottish theme or motif in their clothing.  First, I must take issue with the following statement:

"Post-Cullodden (1746), the Proscription Act made it a felony to possess tartan. "

The actual text of the "Proscription Act" is available here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/proscription_1747.htm

The Act deals with much more than Highland dress, but the relevant section reads thus:

"That from and after the first day of August, One thousand, seven hundred and forty-seven, no man or boy 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….shall be liable to be transported to any of His Majesty's plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for the space of seven years."

In fact, the Act did not prohibit the possession of tartan.  Nor did it make it illegal to manufacture or sell it.  It prohibited the wearing of tartan by men and boys outside the army, but not by women and girls.  Finally, it only applied within the borders of Scotland; a Highland laird living the high life in London could wear as much tartan as he liked while his poor starving tenants were suffering the full wrath of the Clearances.   

The "Tartan Revival" also began a bit sooner than some would have it.  The Act remained in force for 36 years, but was lifted in 1782.  By this time the old clan system was broken, but both Highland and Lowland people embraced tartan in various forms as Scottish national dress.  Commercial exploitation quickly followed, with William Wilson (a Lowlander) and Sons of Bannockburn taking an early lead in mass production of tartan cloth.  At first he gave his patterns numbers, but it was not long before associations with names (mostly bogus) became popular.  (A good example is the customer who wrote requesting a piece of the tartan that bore his family's name, "and if there isn't one please send me a different pattern and call it X").  This so the requestor could be properly dressed for the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822, in which the monarch himself appeared dressed in kilt of what he was assured was "Royal Stewart" tartan.  Much more information is available here: 

http://www.albanach.org/review.html

With mass production of tartan cloth well established by the turn of the 19th century, and made fashionable by the interest of George IV (and later, Victoria and Albert) it is little wonder that tartan cloth frequently appears in store ledgers.  That's not to say we should all run out and buy kilts in the "family plaid", but there are tasteful ways of incorporating these fabrics in a period-appropriate manner...



The plaid in the vest shown above has an interesting history.  It is now known as "Mitchell" (my mother's family name), but that association is from 1951, in honor of General Billy Mitchell of Air Force fame.  However, the same pattern is listed in weaver's catalogs from the early 19th century as "Galbraith".  So, I can use it for a period vest, but can't call it "Mitchell".



Closeup of the thistle motif buttons.



Here's a tailoring tip from DeVere.  If you look close you can see a horizontal dart starting just under the armscye.  DeVere recommends this dart placement for plaids and stripes, since the usual one under the breast pocket would break up the pattern.

Hope this is of interest,

Jim R.

[bevinmacrae]

WOW! Great info! I am very excited. Nevr thought about a plaid vest. I always think of them as being rather modern. But not so! Love those thistle buttons. I think I have a slew of those somewhere.


Very interesting, and another tidbit to add to my "top Ten"

The darts under the bust in men's vests are accurrate! I always wondered about that! Especially since they can make it more difficult to put in an outside pocket near the waistline. The tip about the horizontal dart for stripes is very interesting as well. For fitting info, what were the purposes of both these darts? To improve fit? To make the vest fit closer? I am currently under the impression (false?) that men's clothing, though tailored and individual, had a looser fit than say, women's garments. And what if the gentleman has a belly? Leave out the darts?

~bevin

[BarbaraSmith]

Hey, sort of tangenting here, but I've always wondered how men achieved that "pigeon breasted" look so popular in the fashion illustrations. Do they pad their vests?

Cheers,
Barbara

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for additional reading, Jim!  I'll be adding to my files.

There's an image of the Prince Consort wearing a coat that photographs with one plaid, trousers of another plaid, and a vest of yet another... proving there can indeed be too much of a good thing.

I'm convinced--I have to get the DeVere book, don't I? 

[debi casey]

And what if the gentleman has a belly? Leave out the darts?

Since the two men that I have to sew for both have bellies, you must make the front of the vest a bit longer to go over the belly and also swing out the center front line to be a bit curved to go around the belly.  It's not much, but that is what all 3 of my books say.

In fact, I am amazed at how much fiddling they did.....I had no idea that you should cut your pants differently if you are bow legged or knock-kneed.

Thanks Jim, I personally would never have thought of making a plaid vest....more things to ponder.
Debi

[Carolann Schmitt]

Bevin -
If you're having trouble with the stitching on the vertical darts coming undone when you cut the pocket opening, try sewing the darts with a very short stitch lenth. The stay-stitching for the pocket opening also helps prevent it from "opening up" while doing the pocket.

The darts do improve the fit of a vest or a coat. While a sack coat is generally loose-fitting, vests, frock coats and evening coats are relatively close-fitting. For gentlemen with a belly, it depends on the size and shape of the belly. Sometimes you can leave the dart out; sometimes you need to add a dart below the lower pockets to keep the vest close to the bottom curve of the belly. It really depends on the individual.

I've also found a short dart along the neckline curve underneath the collar. Even with proper tailoring techniques, these are often necessary if the gentleman has a shallow upper chest.  Your thoughts, Jim?

Barbara -
Men's vests are often padded. The Simplicity vest pattern by Martha McCain and Past Pattern's single-breasted waistcoat pattern have instructions for padding a vest. On many lightweight summer vests the padding is removable.

Debi -
Swinging out and curving the center front line to go over the belly is one solution that works well on a plain fabric. But it will distort the pattern on a plaid, pattern or geometric weave. I've noticed on several original vests that the center front line has been kept on the straight grain, with the side seams swung out to add additional room over the belly and darts added for shaping. Just an alternate method of achieving the same goal while maintaining the pattern of the fabric.

One of my favorite original plaid vests is made from plaid printed velvet cut on the bias. It's definitely not for the conservative gentleman.

Regards,
Carolann

[Jim_Ruley]

I've also found a short dart along the neckline curve underneath the collar. Even with proper tailoring techniques, these are often necessary if the gentleman has a shallow upper chest.  Your thoughts, Jim?

Dear Carolann,

Theoretically, anything you can do with darts, you can do with "stretching and fulling" -- IF your material will respond properly to the iron.  This involves stretching the material over a form, or working from the outside in to make an area shrink.  Apparently a skilled tailor could start with a flat piece of wool and just about cover a basketball with it.

For us mere mortals, or materials which will not stretch and full (like silk, cotton, or linen) darts are required if an area needs a rounded shape.  They also can be used to "correct" pattern deficiencies -- DeVere has some rather acid comments about one of his competitors who always cut his coats "too straight" and then had to stretch certain areas to solve fit problems.  Sometimes the same technique can be applied to an existing garment or pattern as well.

Thanks,

Jim R.

[Carolann Schmitt]

For us mere mortals, or materials which will not stretch and full (like silk, cotton, or linen) darts are required if an area needs a rounded shape. 

Jim R.

Ahh!  That makes perfect sense. Your comment sent me to the stack of acid-free boxes in the basement. I haven't gone through all the vests, but so far the ones with a dart under the collar are silk, linen or cotton pique. I only have a few wool vests and they're in the bottom box. I may not get a chance to look at those until the conference. 

I've never tried covering a basketball in wool, but I've covered the equivalent of a few footballs - all with steam, pressing and stretching. It's just lovely stuff. 

And I liked the photos without pins. 

Carolann

[bevinmacrae]

I was just going to ask the same quesiton barb!

If one would like to make a plaid vest, is there a registry or something of patterns of tartan that existed back in the 1860's to look at? The names may have changed, but if we could see a pic of the pattern, it would be helpful to match.

I'm starting to think of men's tailoring in a whole new way! This is great stuff!

~bevin

[Elizabeth]

There won't be one that's specific to the 1860s, but do a search for Tartan Finder... I don't recall the website precisely.  It had a search engine allowing you to see the tartan, and dates of registry.  "Clark", for instance, is a variant of "Clergy", and was registered in 1815.

[bevinmacrae]

great! I was given a few lengthy peices of some hideous tartan a year ago by a tartan store in Canada that was going under. I'd be interested to know if any of the plaids are designs that were around back then. Tartan Finder, here I come!
~bevin

[BarbaraSmith]

Well, but wasn't PLAID that wasn't TARTAN also produced in our time period? Just because it's called Tartan by modern standards doesn't mean it won't work as a period plaid, does it?

I'd use the hideous tartan. Particularly if you're replicating the Prince Albert outfit Jim described. 

LOL,
B.

[bevinmacrae]

I found tartan finder and I found out that our family tartan has been around since 1850! Also, the culloden tartan I donated to our group as a "shawl" is the oldest, about 1746. I think I'm going to be stealing that back and donating in it's stead the Hunting Thompson I have since there is no date for that one. Hmm, what other plaid things can I put through this search are around here....

~bevin

[Elizabeth]

Barb makes a good point: plaid (even ugly stuff) was popular mid-century, so something doesn't have to be a registered tartan to be useful.  In fact, if someone is leaning toward a well-recognized tartan (like Stewart or Dress Stewart, Black Watch, or MacDonald, which is often seen in modern school uniforms), I'd urge going with a non-tartan over something so easily "spottable."  Plaids are great--tartans can be, but sure aren't the only option out there for mid-century.

[always in fashion]

also just a tad of info.... I do not know how many would have used thier clans ancient colors or the modern ones. here http://www.usaplaza.com/scripts/wcom_producttree.asp?StoreID=1163&ProductID=35369 is a link to my clans ancient plaid which is quite different than the modern colors. So The dates on the tartan finder are somewhat irrelevent? since many/most clans have ancient colors as well as a modern counterpart.

mrs. stacy

[bevinmacrae]

You should go on tartan finder just for kicks. It was interesting to find out that many tartan variations labeled as "ancient" today actually were invented in this past century (1900's) to imitate colors that might have been used back then. For instance, I always thought that the hunting version of my fam tartan was around at the time the red tartan was around (1850) but that's not so. It was patanted in the 1890's. Weathered and ancient colors were made to be imitations of tartans supposedly hidden in the ground by scots under the proscription, and when later dug up, the dyes had faded. Nice story, but perhaps, like so many other romantisized versions of scottish lore, not true. The mills are always concocting new tartans, tartan finder even has an option for you to invent your own and have it woven! my personal fav tartans are the ones that were actually found on the Culloden battlefield and weren't able to be linked with any particular individual. They are quite interesting design-wise! And the colors are quite wild and crazy! It's also interesting to browse the more modern tartans, for universities and sports groups. Who knew there were so very many out there!

~bevin