GBP
Information Centre
How are tartans named & categorised?
Complex or simple, you'll find the answer here. And our team loves to help, so contact us!
Search the Information Centre
Need help? See our Search TipsArticles
What are the steps of tartan selection?
You normally select a tartan fabric in a series of steps. (You may skip one or two.) These are: Choose Family or Name Choose Pattern or Sett Choose Colourway Choose Fabric While browsing products on our site, we can highlight items made in a Selected tartan at any level. You can choose to see: Products with tartans in your Family or (More...)What are “Custom Design” tartans?
Tartans described as Custom Designs in our Tartan and Fabric Finder are not officially recorded but have been informally created by users of our free online Tartan Designer facility. Please read the following points carefully before ordering a Custom Design tartan. Unless later registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans, or recorded by the Scottish Tartans (More...) Weaving looms are almost always made in one of two widths: single width (about 30″ or 70cm) or double width (about 60″ or 1.4m). Single width of course costs about half the price of double width! In most cases the width will not matter to you. Our systems are designed to price products using the correct (More...)
We offer two main types of material to order: (1) Off-the-Shelf fabrics that are in production at one of the major weaving mills, and that we can source for you normally within a few days; and (2) Woven-to-Order fabrics, including wools and silks, that we can produce for you affordably at our own small mill (More...)
Most tartans are associated with a different nationality. So we classify them by locality, to help you find ones appropriate to your own roots. To be shown only your local tartans, select this option in the Advanced Search of our Tartan Finder. (This can be combined with other filters too.) Not surprisingly most are Scottish. But (More...)
Fabrics are produced at a wide range of prices. For your convenience, we group these into three main price bands. To limit your choices to one price band only, select that option in the Advanced Search area of our Tartan Finder. (This can be combined with other filters.) The Luxury Range includes our woven to order (More...)
To help you find the fabric you want, we group all our materials by pattern type. The choices are Tartan (e.g. Abercrombie), Tweed (e.g. Checked tweed or purple tweed), and Solid Colour (e.g. Green or Saffron), and Print (e.g. camouflage). If you wish to see only one of these, select that choice in the ‘Advanced Search‘ (More...)
Most of our fabrics are described both with their ‘actual’ weight (e.g. 13oz) and their weight category (e.g. medium weight). These will be suitable for different purposes. If in doubt, just ask us. The weight categories are in five bands: Heavy Weight (16-19oz); Medium Weight (11-15oz); Light Weight (9-10oz); Spring Weight (6-8oz); and Feather Weight (under (More...)
Tartan Name: Materials or Fabrics
The “same” tartan (e.g. Stewart Hunting Ancient) can be woven in any number of fabrics, by different weavers. Which you choose depends on how you intend to use it. The main distinctions are: Material - e.g. Pure New Wool, Silk, etc. Weight - e.g. 16oz (heavy), 10oz (light), etc. Width - e.g. 140cm/56″ (double), 70cm/28″ (single) Finish - e.g. (More...)Tartan Name: Colourways or Shades
A tartan is defined by its unique “sett” - a pattern of criss-cross lines of various widths in particular colours. These colours are traditionally recorded quite loosely, such as “dark green”. This leaves plenty of room for interpretation! Over the years, tartan weavers have developed a conventional set of colour treatments, with names like ‘Modern’, ‘Ancient’, (More...) Any tartan Family Name can have a number of different Setts (or patterns) sometimes associated with different occasions (though there is no rule limiting their wear to these occasions!). For example, many clans have a ‘Hunting‘ tartan and a ‘Dress‘ tartan in addition to their general clan tartan. But there are many more such variants, sometimes (More...)
The first way in which we organise and sub-divide our huge choice of tartans is by Family Name. But note that the word ‘family’ here could refer to almost any form of grouping. This will often be literally a family surname (or clan) such as Macdonald or Stewart. But it could equally be a company or organisation (More...)