Tartan, from the kilt to the catwalk

Hi everyone!

It's already the end of the semester at UWS and also the end of my Erasmus year in Scotland. That's why this is my last article. 

It was a really great experience for me to write my own blog! I would like to thank everyone who reads me and those who have kept faithful to me since the creation of the blog. Thank you very much! 

So, for this last post, I am going to explain how Tartan came in fashion. Nowadays fashion designers use the pattern increasingly in their fashion collection. And this year as I showed you in my previous article, we saw a lot of tartan during the Fashion Week 2016.

Tartan appeared in the runways during the nineteen nineties with two major fashion designers, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. 

Alexander McQueen was the first to use his talent to make fashionable tartan and history. His use of this tartan is significant because of the many cultural and historical associations the textile carries. For McQueen, tartan was a reference to his own Scottish heritage as well as to Scotland's turbulent political history.

Suit, Highland Rape, autumn/winter 1995–96 (jacket and skirt not worn together on the runway)

If you would like to learn more about this famous fashion designer, this is a great report about him. 

Vivienne Westwood has a fascination with Scottish traditions. In 1993 she created a collection "Anglomania". Have a look on this blog concerning the tartan clan on the Vivienne Westwood website.

Westwood and McQueen have deliberately subverted the traditional and historical associations of the fabric. 

Few years after, other designers started to use tartan like Comme des Garçons in 2000, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton in 2004 and Balenciaga for the fall show in 2006. 

Then thanks to the Fashion Weeks and those designers, famous people started to wear Tartan like Sarah Jessica Parker in 2006. For the Metropolitan's gala benefit dinner to celebrate the opening of the 2006 exhibition AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion, McQueen and the actress Sarah Jessica Parker arrived together in matching tartan finery. 

In the end of this article I would like to talk about my talented friend Alizée Loubet who is studying fashion design at La Cambre, one of Belgium's leading schools of art and design. I’m very proud of her and during this year she created a beautiful bust of tartan. I wish one day, we will see her collections on the catwalk! 

Tartan & co

Fashion week & Tartan

Hello everyone! I come back with an article about the Fashion Week 2016, I hope you will like it. 

This year we saw a lot of Tartan patterns during the fashion week 2016. Thus Tartan is the new trend of the season autumn/winter 2016 on the catwalk and you will continue to see tartan everywhere in the shops. I wanted to share with you the most beautiful autumn/winter collections of this year. 

During the London fashion week, Christophe Bailey found the inspiration in the British tradition for the Burberry autumn-winter 2016-2017 collection. Burberry unveiled a collection which mixes tartan, python and sequins. The designer found new ways to reimagine the brand’s tradition strengths like these long coats in wool and mohair tartan.

Watch the beautiful Burberry show with the British singer Jake Bugg: 

Topshop has also used tartan pattern in the Topshop Unique Autumn/Winter 2016 show during the London Fashion Week. Topshop Unique delivered all the hallmarks of its youthful, cool girl look with tartan dresses, of course.

As always Vivienne Westwood used the pattern in her collection. She began to create collection with the tartan pattern in the 90’s and she never stopped. Westwood turned to traditional Savile Row tailoring techniques, using British fabrics and 17th and 18th century art for inspiration. Today Vivienne Westwood is one of the last independent global fashion companies in the world. During the London fashion week 2016, Vivienne Westwood opted for trademark tartan and a touch of sparkle. The dean of the fashion industry showcased a collection emphasising relaxed glamour.  And like a tradition the designer worn a tartan shirt at the end of the show.

Finally, Vêtements, the brand that the world can’t stop talking about, showcased a collection with many different tartan during the Paris Fashion Week. The collection that rebelled against authority with naughty school girl uniforms and nods to stifling femininity was applauded. The Vetements show was staged in a church and opened with its stylist Lotta Volkova. It represents the spirit of a different Paris. 

If you would like to see other creations with tartan, click on the link! 

http://www.vogue.fr/mode/inspirations/diaporama/fwah16-tendance-automne-hiver-2016-2017-fashion-week-imprime-ecossais-tartan/26359

Tartan & co