Women in Tartan – A Very Short History for International Women's Day
In the run up to International Women’s Day, and as women in Scotland’s tartan industry, we found ourselves asking “Is tartan really a women’s story?” Tartan is typically associated with men in kilts, and men in the Military, so where are women in the story of tartan? The answer is if you follow the thread back, you find women there from the beginning - wrapped in it, working in it, and later reinventing it with a contemporary twist.
Pre-1800 – Tartan as everyday dress
Women of the Highlands wore a foundation layer - the léine, a long linen shift, often loose and belted. Over that came the earasaid (also spelled arisaid), the most recognisable tartan garment for Highland women in the earlier tradition. It was a large length of cloth, pinned at the shoulder or breast, sometimes belted, and often pulled up over the head like a hood when the weather turned properly Scottish. It functioned as mantle, cloak, and status piece all at once. If you want readers to picture it, it’s less “clan sash” and more “tartan as shelter and presence”. Think Claire Fraser from Outlander.
Tartan in the Victorian Era
The Victorian era didn’t invent tartan, but it did put it on a pedestal and under a spotlight. Queen Victoria’s love of Scotland and the theatre of Highland imagery helped drive what became a full-blown tartan obsession. Balmoral is the emblem here: Victoria and Albert bought the estate in 1848, and by the 1850s tartan is being worn, collected, displayed, and copied with gusto. The Balmoral tartan is commonly dated to 1853 and associated with Prince Albert’s design input. Whether you frame it as royal branding or genuine affection, the outcome is clear: tartan shifts from lived regional dress into a widely marketable symbol, and women become key wearers in fashion, portraiture, and domestic interiors.
Tartan and Punk
Fast-forward to the 1970s and tartan stops behaving politely. Punk takes what was considered heritage and respectable, and uses it as provocation. Vivienne Westwood and the wider punk scene made tartan clash on purpose: tradition and rebellion in the same outfit, safety pins and all. The point was contrast. Tradition and rebellion stitched into the same outfit. What had once signalled lineage suddenly carried a sense of challenge and defiance.
Tartan Design Now
We are now seeing tartan used as a living language again, being designed with intent and meaning. Today you will find a growing number of women shaping what tartan looks like on the cat walk and streets.
Designers like Siobhan MacKenzie, reworking Highland dress through a modern fashion lens, Araminta Campbell, whose studio specialises in bespoke tartans and Samantha McCoach, whose Le Kilt brand reinterprets the kilt and tartan cloth for the twenty first century.
Tartan Designs honour women’s lives…
Our Serbia tartan was launched on International Women’s Day 2020 and is dedicated to Dr Elsie Inglis (1864–1917). Elsie was a pioneering doctor and suffragist who founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and helped save thousands of lives during the First World War, particularly in Serbia, where she is honoured with memorial sites marking where she and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals served during the First World War. There are plans to honour her with a statue in her home – Edinburgh - but it has taken us a long time to catch up.
We also have our Queen of Scots, which honours Mary Queen of Scots, the first woman to rule Scotland in her own right. The design also commemorates the reopening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Its palette draws on the thistle, with strong royal purple bands running through the sett. It is rooted in heritage, but the message is about continuity and authority.
The Siham Dabbagh Commemorative Tartan brings in something especially powerful for International Women’s Day: women holding history for the next generation. Designed in 2024 and commissioned by Siham’s granddaughter, it honours Siham Dabbagh (d. 2019), noted as a pioneer for Palestinian women’s rights and for preserving Palestinian history and heritage.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Give to Gain ‘encouraging a mindset of generosity and collaboration’ and perhaps that is the thread running through the whole story. From Highland women pinning an earasaid against the weather, to Victorian queens, punk designers, doctors, activists, and granddaughters commissioning memorial cloth, women have shaped how tartan is worn, understood, and remembered. Not on the margins, but right at its centre.
Check out some of our women's products: the mini kilt, classic skirt and shawl.