Time Travelling Tartan: From Westwood to Outlander

Tradition and subversion

From this brief roll call of designers we can see immediately how uniquely adaptable tartan is as a pattern, a pattern that appears to move with ease between subversion and tradition, rebellion and conformity, a true textile of contradiction, that transcends both time and space. It is this time-travelling ability that makes tartan such a vital component of the success of Outlander.

Its ability to collapse time and hurtle the characters on screen, and indeed viewers, back and forth through time, turning tartan into a form of textile transporter signalling both the past and present, and using its own complex history to spotlight crucial turning points in the storyline, in which the audience become immersed. The plot lines of oppression, political intrigue and doomed romance that feature in Outlander, are echoed in tartan’s own complicated and often troubled histories.

The origins of tartan are elusive and remain today the subject of heated academic debate, and any attempt to locate the ‘first’ tartan or to establish it as a uniquely Scottish pattern, is met with opposition by textile historians at pains to point out that checked cloth patterns exist all over the world and that the simplest way to introduce decoration in woven cloth is through the introduction of different coloured warp and weft, a process that can be found amongst indigenous weaving traditions all around the globe and from the earliest times.

For many the so called Falkirk Tartan, a fragment of a simple two colour check or shepherd’s plaid as these simple patterns are known, dating from the 3^rd century CE, acted as ‘proof’ for many of tartan’s Scottish origins, but as previously stated two-colour check woven textiles have been produced by many different cultures.

More recently the Glen Affric tartan, discovered in a peat bog in the 1980s and woven in earthy brown, green, red and yellow tones dating from 1500-1600 CE is now widely believed to be the first existing piece of true Scottish tartan. This tartan pre-dating the Jacobite-era tartans created for Outlander, nevertheless, is representative of the hand woven, coarser and muted colour ways that inspired the meticulous research undertaken by one of Outlander’s original costume designers Terry Dresbach.

Although evidence exists of more expensive, brighter, imported dyes being used for some early tartans, Dresbach’s decision to produce tartans using indigenous Highland dyestuffs obtained from naturally occurring plant species conforms closely to pioneering tartan research carried out by authors such as Gordon Teall of Teallach and Philip D. Smith Jr. and their work District Tartans.

This book proposed that alongside clan tartans where the specific arrangement of different colours of different widths that make up a tartan’s check (or ‘sett’ as it is officially termed) is associated with a specific clan, there also existed district tartans worn by people living in the same area using the products of the same weavers who in turn employed local dyes and preferences in their cloth.

For Outlander Dresbach designed and had woven a number of tartans, based on muted, more sombre, earthy coloured variants, often known in tartan terminology as ‘ancient’ or ‘weathered’, of the existing ‘Fraser’ and ‘MacKenzie’ tartans, which today are typically much brighter in colour palette.

These especially designed Outlander tartans have been registered and recognised by the Scottish Register of Tartans where they are listed with the accompanying registration notes ‘Created for the television series Outlander. Ancient and weathered colours were used to simulate the natural wools and dyes available in the time period of the story.’

Across Time and Space

Outlander is one of many productions that have drawn not only on tartan’s ability to represent contradictory attitudes, but also to transcend time itself, transporting wearers and viewers back and forth through different ages. Vincente Minnelli’s 1954 film version of Brigadoon, portrayed inhabitants suspended in a sort of 'tartan coma' awakening every 100 years in tartan inflected with mid-century Hollywood glamour. More recently, time defying tartans worn in the 1986 cult classic Highlander.

On film and television, tartan has frequently journeyed to outer space. In the 1969 episode of the original Star Trek, The Savage Curtain, we see the Enterprise’s chief engineer, Scotty, donning a full kilt, sporran and belted plaid, teamed with Starfleet style zip-fronted jacket. At the request of Captain Kirk, his officers don full dress uniform to honour a visit by a reanimated Abraham Lincoln, a perfect example of tartan’s ability to transcend time, space and logic. As fanciful as this last example may seem, 1969 also saw tartan fly to the moon itself when astronaut Alan Bean carried aboard the Apollo 12 mission a square of MacBean tartan, and then onto the lunar surface, with the swatch of tartan tucked into his kit as he explored the Ocean of Storms.