By Norman Millar
26th May 2021
Tartan is updating its image in the 21st Century, with new patterns exploring issues around climate change, homelessness - and World War Two dive bombers, writes Norman Millar
More resonances cling to tartan than perhaps any other fabric. It's a stirring visual expression of both history and geography, as well as innovative design and self-expression. "There are many ways in which you can make a tartan distinctive and imbue it with personal or collective meaning, "says Rosie Waine, William Grant Foundation research fellow at National Museums Scotland. "Throughout its history, tartan has been used to express political viewpoints, as well as familial, regional and national identities; It has been viewed as tame and conservative by some; bold, brilliant and radical by others."
Far from being a dyed-in-the-wool slice of historic Caledonian kitsch, tartan design is very much alive and well in the 21st Century - as evidenced by the stream of new examples recorded each year at the Scottish Register of Tartans. And the range of inspirations is as diverse as the designs.
Take the 2021 design entitled COP26 - A New Dawn, a dazzling creation providing a textile take on the hugely important global climate change summit due to be staged in Glasgow this November. Designed by Brian Wilton - former director of the Scottish Tartans Authority, and a leading light in contemporary tartan design - it is typical of the new wave of tartans drawing inspiration from social and historical issues.
"I always try to base some of the geometry of a new tartan on an historical tartan so that, somehow it's rooted in the past , and has a little bit of history clinging to it. It isn't just an johnny-come-lately produced for fulfilling a transient need," says Wilton.
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