Early British tartans

• The first British tartans were developed in Scotland in the 16th century, and flourished by the end of the century. Early tartans were not identifiable with any one clan, and there were no set patterns or colors until at least the 17th century.
  
  

District Identification

• Tartans were not originally assigned to a clan, but were instead more likely to identify the district a wearer came from. The colors used in the tartan were present largely because of the berries and dyes available in certain areas of Britain.
  
  

Patriotism

• The wearing of the tartan was a symbol of Scottish pride--and was banned when the Scots were defeated at the battle of Culloden in 1746. After the ban was overturned 1782, a number of factors contributed to the rise in popularity of the tartan, including the works of Sir Walter Scott and the support of England's George IV and Queen Victoria.
  
  

Clan tartans

• At the end of the 18th and in the early 19th centuries, tartans became associated with family clans, and began to be compiled in book form. Official registration began in 1815.
  
  

1900s popularity

• By the 1900s, it wasn't just family clans that were adopting official tartans. Military organizations, private companies and even countries signed on to have their own tartan patterns.
  
  

Entitlement and new tartans

• There are no rules as to who can wear what tartan. There are more than 7,000 versions now registered in official channels, and approximately 150 new tartans are registered each year.