Tartan is in! Here’s how to wear it (if you’re not Scottish or royal)
When King Charles debuted his new personal tartan at the Braemar Games in the Highlands at the beginning of September, he wasn’t just writing a new chapter in the long-running royal love affair with the traditional fabric, but he was also declaring himself an early adopter of one of autumn/winter’s biggest trends.
And with Princess Anne joining the King by wearing her own dashing Stewart Hunting kilt and Queen Camilla in a bespoke plaid look, the senior royals could almost have stepped straight off the new season catwalks.
From the ancient castles of Scotland to the ateliers of Paris, tartan remains a look which, when done right, can exude timeless elegance, edgy cool, rebellious spirit or something impishly inbetween. It was the fabric worn by Queen Elizabeth II in the final public picture ever taken of her, and the look loved by the ultimate punk, Vivienne Westwood. How’s that for versatility?
King Charles in King Charles III tartan. Created this year by the Scottish tartan authority, the King debuted his new tartan at this year’s Braemar Games
“Over the last hundred years tartan has transformed from old-fashioned and twee, as a decoration on shortbread tins, to a symbol of many different street style movements,” says Caroline Young, author of Tartan and Tweed and The Fabulous Frances Farquharson: The Colourful Life of an American in the Highlands.
“Punk, grunge and glam rock, and as part of the cool Japanese Harajuku street style trend. This in turn has inspired high-end fashion. Tartan is the uniform of lumberjacks and country-and-western singers, and it’s an attention-grabbing stage costume for pop singers.”
The King might represent tartan at its most traditional, but it can work in anyone’s wardrobe.
History of tartan
Its reputation as a wear-anywhere fabric goes back even further; “It’s the only fabric I know you can go to war in, like Black Watch tartan worn during the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and make love in, because each year hundreds of thousands of people marry in kilts around the globe,” analyses Lynne Coleman, author of How Scotland Dressed the World and an archivist with a vast personal collection of tartan examples.
Although tartan has existed for thousands of years, its modern guise as a formalised tradition, whereby each pattern is laden with specific meaning and history, emerged in the lead-up to George IV’s visit to Scotland in 1822, the first time a reigning monarch had visited the country since 1633. This was a period when, to Scots, particular tartans became firmly linked to certain clans, and to outsiders, the pattern epitomised a romantic vision of the country.
Naomi Campbell in MacAndreas tartan. Vivienne Westwood was so enamoured by the tartan tradition that she designed her own for her autumn/ winter 1993/4 collection which was entitled Anglomania. She named the design after her husband and it’s still used by the brand today
Meanwhile, the royal connection as we know it today was cemented by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who celebrated their love of Balmoral by creating a tartan in tribute to the castle in 1850, distinguished by its grey colouring in reference to Royal Deeside granite from which it is built. Balmoral tartan can only be worn with permission from the sovereign and is usually reserved for the royal family and Balmoral’s resident piper.
Queen Elizabeth in Balmoral tartan
How the royals wear it now – and what we can learn from them
Away from doing the full kilt and sporran regalia, other members of the royal family have a contemporary approach to styling tartan which any of us could channel. Princess Anne loves combining a neat kilt skirt with a bold jacket, a look which has also been seen at the likes of Gucci and Miu Miu. And the Princess of Wales has evolved from dutifully carrying a scarf in Strathearn tartan early in her royal life (the pattern associated with the title she and Prince William held before they became known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay north of the border) to experimenting with more fashion-forward takes.
The Princess Royal has an array of tartan skirts in her wardrobe but most recently chose the Stewart Hunting, a version of the most famous tartan, Royal Stewart
One of the Princess’s favourite labels for sourcing modern tartan is Holland Cooper, the Cotswolds-based brand which has made traditional country clothing exciting and glamorous for a glossy new rural set. Catherine has worn the brand’s ￡749 Blackwatch tartan coat several times, and the ￡849 Marlborough trench coat in a heather tartan print was her most literal tribute to Scottish style during a visit to Edinburgh in 2021.
“Tartan is key to the Holland Cooper collections: ours are all hand-woven and manufactured in the UK,” says founder Jade Holland Cooper. “One of the reasons I love it is because it transcends time, it’s as much part of our collections today as it was when I started the business over a decade ago. I love to mix tradition with modern day style and colour.” The Prince of Wales has recently been criticised for not embracing the kilt look, but Coleman emphasises that’s not his only tartan option and that he might like to take cues from his wife’s way of wearing the fabric.
“What would be interesting is to see him incorporate tartan in his suiting,” she says. “Much like the Princess of Wales has done with adding tartan into her wardrobe and making it look contemporary. There are so many ways to wear tartan, he just needs to find what style represents him best.”
The way to wear it this season
Tartan has never exactly been out of fashion but it has had moments of being a major part of the style zeitgeist, whether that’s the anti-establishment subversion created by the punks in the Seventies and Eighties or as a reference for Alexander McQueen in the Nineties and Noughties when he used his McQueen clan tartan to comment on the political history of England and Scotland – a message which went global when Sarah Jessica Parker wore a tartan design from his Widows of Culloden collection to 2006’s Met Gala.
The designer Alexander McQueen used his clan’s tartan in two of his fashion collections. When he and Sarah Jessica Parker attended the Met Gala in matching tartan looks, they created a new cultural moment for tartan
Now tartan can mean almost anything. In Burberry’s latest collection, it’s grungy and youthful; at Dior, it’s prim and ladylike; at Stella McCartney, it’s subtle and androgynous; and at Saint Laurent, it comes in the form of power tailored blazers and pencil skirts. “Anyone can create their own tartan,” Young confirms, “and designers can have a lot of fun in trying out different colour combinations which have particular meanings to them.”
I know several Scottish people who can’t bring themselves to don anything tartan, for fear it’s the cringiest of clichés but I always urge them not to be so wary. If you opt for a plaid in sludgy, understated tones, it can look sleek and sophisticated.
Of course, there are the stereotypical bright and jolly versions of tartan which I think look glorious just worn as one piece – a jacket, a skirt, a dress – but would avoid doing head-to-toe. In the lead-up to Christmas (just 111 days to go!), it’s especially uplifting.
For men, I’d suggest keeping to the more muted tones and exploring outerwear and accessories in dialled-back tartans – Barbour has its own pleasingly refined version which comes on everything from weekend bags to scarves and baseball caps.
Then again, a tartan shirt, like this Ralph Lauren version, with jeans or cords, is a failsafe autumn weekend outfit. Tartan trousers? Tricky to pull off without resembling Rupert Bear: not that that’s always a bad look…
The best tartan to buy now for men and women
From left: Jaeger Longline boyfriend coat, ￡350, Marks & Spencer; Organic cotton blend dress, ￡119, Aligne; Pleated skirt, ￡215, Brora
From left: Universal Works wool fleece, ￡215, End Clothing; Cap, ￡29.95, Barbour