Tartan: Revised and Updated

An outstanding and comprehensive contribution to the history of Tartan. - Telegraph

Featuring new insights and an additional chapter on masculinities, this updated edition of Tartan revitalizes discussions about the fabric’s traditional, sentimental Highland origins and its deliberate subversion by contemporary designers.

Tartan’s history has made it uniquely capable of expressing both conformity and subversion, tradition and innovation. Through positioning tartan within broader philosophical, political and cultural contexts, from the tartan-clad Highland regiments and Queen Victoria’s royal endorsement, to the fabric’s influence on Westwood and McQueen and a generation of Japanese designers such as Watanabe and Takahashi, Jonathan Faiers traces tartan’s development from clanship to contemporary fashion and its enormous domestic and global impact.

Beautifully illustrated and weaving together a story out of history, art, music, film and fashion, Tartan demonstrates that this most traditional and radical fabric has become one of extraordinary versatility and far-reaching appeal.