Tartan, the woven, checked, and wool textile considered by many to be originally from Scotland, has in fact been in use in a range of forms across numerous cultures and during various historical periods. The characteristic checked feature is due to the assembly of different coloured threads in both warp and weft directions which intersect at 90 degrees in a combination known as a sett. For well over one hundred years, different setts and thus different colour combinations have been associated closely with different geographical regions within Scotland, as well as different clans or families. Tartan-type textiles have reached popularity at various times and those have often been a predicted fashion trend suggested, for example, by contributors to fashion gatherings such as Premier Vision in Paris. Often proposed designs are best considered based on tartan combinations rather than simple reproductions. Promotional terms such as “patched checks” or “textured checks” have been common, and often these have been derived from tartan-type constructions. This paper explores novel pattern design methods by identifying the underlying grid structures and proportions exhibited by various well-known tartan setts. The possibility of pattern development from tartan grids and their manipulations is thus the focus of attention. An insight into the methodology associated with the production of original pattern designs is thus provided.

Due principally to the desire to seek lower production costs, the bulk of the world’s textile and clothing manufacture migrated to low-cost zones, mainly outside Europe, over the course of the late-twentieth century. In the early-twenty-first century, fast fashion became a dominant force worldwide, with ‘Western’ retail buyers hunting cheaper deals from clothing manufacturers (mainly in Asia), and with occasional disasters not changing matters beyond the duration of a fashion season. Progressively, seams became narrower, cheaper raw materials were used and durability was no longer an aim. Why bother to do otherwise? This was what the ‘Western’ consumer wanted: fashion to be worn only a few times and then discarded, despite the fact that vast amounts of human, technological and financial resources were wasted in such a quest. By the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, the production of textile and clothing products continued to contribute substantially to global warming. This paper reviews briefly the current conditions of manufacture, and argues that the research agenda should be focused on addressing the implications of a progressively changed focus, not on fast-fashion products, but instead on the production of products with greater durability. Meanwhile ‘Western’ consumers need to turn away from fast fashion and realise that waste is bad for their economy and their society. It is argued further, that after a period of re-adjustment, substantial financial rewards await the national textile and clothing industries that undergo such a turn around.

Industrial innovation in Britain, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stimulated the introduction of the factory system and the migration of people from rural agricultural communities to urban industrial societies. The factory system brought elevated levels of economic growth to the purveyors of capitalism, but forced people to migrate into cities where working conditions in factories were, in general, harsh and brutal, and living conditions were cramped, overcrowded and unsanitary. Industrial developments, known collectively as the ‘Industrial Revolution’, were driven initially by the harnessing of water and steam power, and the widespread construction of rail, shipping and road networks. Parallel with these changes, came the development of purchasing ‘middle class’, consumers. Various technological ripples (or waves of innovative activity) continued (worldwide) up to the early-twenty-first century. Of recent note are innovations in digital technology, with associated developments, for example, in artificial intelligence, robotics, 3-D printing, materials technology, computing, energy storage, nano-technology, data storage, biotechnology, ‘smart textiles’ and the introduction of what has become known as ‘e-commerce’. This paper identifies the more important early technological innovations, their influence on textile manufacture, distribution and consumption, and the changed role of the designer and craftsperson over the course of these technological ripples. The implications of non-ethical production, globalisation and so-called ‘fast fashion’ and non-sustainability of manufacture are examined, and the potential benefits and opportunities offered by new and developing forms of social media are considered. The message is that hand-crafted products are ethical, sustainable and durable.

Checks are best considered as a (visible) sub-set of grids, and each check consists of two assemblies of parallel lines, one superimposed on the other at ninety degrees. In the conventional textile context, one assembly of parallel yarns is superimposed on another at ninety degrees. These parallel lines caused by the yarns remain visually apparent in the finished composition. Commonly, checks are considered simply as a variety of woven textile and Scottish clan tartans, or plaids (common terminology for tartans in the USA), famously display a checked feature, using differently colored yarns in woven-textile form. Often the sequence of colours and the numbers of yarns used is equal in both warp and weft directions. Where this is the case, the tartan may be considered to be ‘balanced’ or ‘regular’, with the component yarns creating square units repeating across and down the fabric. Thus in balanced tartans, lengthways components have identical ordering, colouring and measured width to those used widthways. Meanwhile an unbalanced check lacks one or more of these attributes. This paper explores further the nature of Scottish clan tartans, using data collected from collections of rare tartans held at ULITA – An Archive of International Textiles at the University of Leeds.