In honour of Burns Night, I thought I would share my review of The Secret Life of Tartan* by Vixy Rae, which describes the fascinating history of the iconic Scottish fabric.

Victoria ‘Vixy’ Rae is the co-owner of Stewart Christie & Co, the oldest bespoke tailors in Scotland, and is the first female member of the The Incorporation of Edinburgh Tailors. In her book, The Secret Life of Tartan, Rae draws on her experience within the fashion industry, as well as her Scottish heritage, to trace the origins of tartan’s complex (often lurid) history and its links to a specific people and landscape. Rae also examines tartan’s influence within literature, art and rebel culture and explains the universal appeal of the cloth, which sees it transcending continents and used in striking designs across industries, from luxury fashion to the everyday biscuit tin. 

Tartan is imbued with connotations of romance, masculinity and identity, and as Rae explores the history of tartan, she sees the complexity of the task in her attempts to separate fact from fiction. Rae realises a study of tartan will always be shrouded in mythology and mystery, as the history of the cloth has become embellished and fabricated over time. During her research, Rae makes some astonishing discoveries: who would suspect, for instance, that the kilt, in the form we know today, was first designed by a ‘sassenach’ Englishman? Rae disrupts other preconceptions and myths that surround Scotland’s most iconic fabric: she challenges the notions of tartan as a particularly ‘masculine’ cloth, highlighting that women have worn tartan for centuries and celebrating the female dyers, carders and spinners who worked to create such distinctive fabric.

Many fascinating stories make up the history of tartan, and The Secret Life of Tartan is peppered with intriguing facts and anecdotes. Rae writes of Sir Walter Scott’s almost single-handed revival of tartan in the early 1800s and his role in establishing the kilt as a national symbol of Scotland. Specific tartans are examined in the book, such as the Balmoral tartan that may only be worn by the Royal Family and the Black Watch, a historically military tartan. Although tartan is indelibly linked to Scotland, Rae shows how the cloth has inspired people all over the world and was popularised by designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen and became an important visual symbol of punk culture in the 1970s.

The necessity of promoting sustainable, ethical fashion is discussed in The Secret Life of Tartan, and Rae is passionate in her writing about the importance of the provenance of materials, supporting local industries and ensuring that the skills required by traditional crafts such as hand-weaving and dyeing are not lost. Rae writes eloquently on how the colours of ancient tartans reflected their terroir: the local vegetation was used to dye the wool, and so a tartan’s resulting colour-mix would reflect its natural environment. Inspired by this link between man-made fabric and natural resources, Rae learns how to hand-dye wool using natural ingredients, and recipes for dyes using onion skins and nettles are included in the book.

The Secret Life of Tartan is a visual treat and makes a stylish coffee table book, with its many colour photographs of sumptuous tartans. A highlight of the book is the inclusion of an original poem by the Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith, in celebration of the romance and nostalgia evoked by tartan. Although Rae’s writing style is conversational, her considerable experience within bespoke tailoring lends authority to her work. She also seeks further insight from fellow experts; The Secret Life of Tartan includes several interviews with the people behind the cloth: designers, weavers, social historians and entrepreneurs who are breathing new life into tartan, mixing contemporary ideas and technology with ancient craft and lineage. Rae concludes that ‘tartan is a cloth of people rather than place,’ which must ensure that the future of tartan is as bright and varied as its history.

A condensed version of my review first appeared in Selvedge Magazine, Issue 94.

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