AT the heart of every tartan is a special story – that’s what makes the cloth unique. Tartan is so much more than a textile, it is culture, kinship, place, time, and belonging – it brings people together simply through colour and line.
The Young Women’s Movement echoes exactly this, so creating a tartan on behalf of The House of Edgar for this brilliant charity was a truly wonderful project to be part of.
The Young Women’s Movement is Scotland’s national organisation for young women and girls’ leadership and rights. Its history dates back to 1924 as YWCA Scotland, and although it goes by a different name today, the organisation is proud of what it has achieved over the last century.
READ MORE: Famed folk band Capercaillie team up with orchestra for busy schedule
Tartans are, at their root, a series of numbers that create a unique pattern. Hidden within The Young Women’s Movement tartan are numbers that celebrate 100 years of the organisation.
The colours are bright and vibrant, echoing the Movement’s positivity – this was an important aspect of the tartan design, and allows it to stand out in a crowd of now thousands of registered tartans.
I am proud to see a charity for young women sporting tartan, something we generally associate with masculine Highland dress in the form of kilts. It’s exciting to see more women embracing tartan and making it their own!
My own career has been all about preserving and respecting the past, while pushing this iconic textile forward into a promising and exciting future. I do believe in looking back, and understanding what has been and where it came from, in order to strongly move forward.
My role at tartan designers and weavers Macnaughtons allows me to do this every day, while working with our fantastic customers who are so passionate about the world of kilts and tartan.
I graduated with a degree in textiles in 2018 and found myself disappointed at the lack of encouragement I received while studying to pursue a career in Scottish textiles – our rich and lasting history of textiles in this country ignored for being seemingly “old-fashioned”.
But I looked past this criticism and since graduating have not stopped working with and studying tartan. I started my career as a handmade kilt maker, learning how to hand weave in my spare time so I could understand tartan to the very fibres it came from.
Now I am a tartan designer for The House of Edgar, the Highlandwear division of Macnaughton Holdings.
Macnaughtons, like tartan, has a long and rich history. Founded in 1783 by the Macnaughton family in Perthshire, the business has stood the test of time.
Known across the globe for the beautiful cloths we create, our tartans are at the forefront of the Highlandwear industry. The head office remains in Perth and our weaving mill is located further north, in Keith. I am so proud to be a tiny part of the Macnaughtons team.
READ MORE: Meet the combat group leading the Scottish film industry in Hollywood
My niche choice of career has opened up so many opportunities, often in very male-dominated fields, from exhibiting alongside whisky distilleries to meeting the King to appearing on television talking about our fascinating culture – to now being a Trustee of The Scottish Tartans Authority.
I have carved out a small place for my work and have found so far that the voice of a young woman has been well received. I hope I set a positive tone for a new and exciting chapter in this industry’s future.
A recent stand-out project in both my role at Macnaughtons and as a trustee has been the recreation of the Glen Affric tartan – the oldest tartan specimen found in Scotland, dating back to c1500-1600.
We brought this tartan back to life earlier in 2024. It is a piece of living history that people can enjoy once more today.
I am proud to be, and hope to continue to be, a voice in the world of tartan for the rest of my life, because it’s so much more than just a job.
I am incredibly fortunate that lots of hard work, peaks and troughs and determination are paying off and I get to design beautiful tartans that mean the world to people – such as those who are part of The Young Women’s Movement – every day.
Emma Wilkinson is a tartan designer for The House of Edgar. This piece was written on behalf of The Young Women’s Movement which is celebrating its 100 year birthday anniversary this year.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here