The kilt has its origin in an older garment called the belted plaid. This was a one-piece six-foot tall cloth, belted about the waist with the remainder being worn up about the shoulder. It was somewhat inconvenient to wear and was replaced in the 1800s with the smaller kilt. The Gaelic word for tartan is breacan, meaning partially colored or speckled, and every tartan today features a multicolored arrangement of stripes and checks. These patterns, or sett's, are used to identify the clan, family, or regiment with which the wearer is associated. It is generally recognised that the first tartans were the result of individual weavers own designs, then were slowly adopted to identify individual districts, then finally clans and families.
The English government felt that tartan was a garb of extremism and a symbol of nationalism and to quell Highland uprising introduced a Dress Act which restricted the wearing of Highland clothes. Punishment for a first offence was a six-month imprisonment, a second offence earned the wearer a seven-year exile to an oversea work farm. Even the Bagpipes were outlawed, being considered an instrument of war. By the time the Dress Act was repealed many old traditions and customs had been lost and was no longer considered a way of life for Highlanders.
