Making My 6th Doctor Costume: Red Tartan - FASHION!
You may have seen that I have restocked the Red Tartan for my Ultimate Six Frock Coat.
This has prompted a couple of messages from my readers, one of which got me thinking.
The reader wanted to know the name or clan the tartan comes from, presumably so they could find it for themselves.
Well, the thing is this “tartan” isn’t really a true tartan and (as far as I have ever been able to discover) is not discernibly based on a registered design.
It is what’s best described as a Fashion Tartan - i.e. something randomly made up by a weaver for sale as a tartan-like fabric.
The thing that makes the Sixth Doctor tartan distinctively NOT a clan tartan is the pattern repeat.
If you’ve been reading this and wondering what all the tartans I’m showing you to the right, they are genuine clan tartans, all of which demonstrate the classic mirror pattern repeat.
If we were to tag the bands of red and black with a number, the pattern repeat would run 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1. This sequence is the same horizontal and vertically, giving you the typical criss-cross grid pattern, and creates quite a complicated looking design from a very simple and limited sequence, i.e. the 1-2-3-4-5-6.
The Sixth Doctor tartan as seen here, is what is best described as a non-mirror, or step-and-repeat pattern.
So in this design the order of the stripes run 1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6 both vertically and horizontally.
So it got me thinking - what would the Sixth Doctor tartan look like IF it was classic mirror pattern repeat?
Here is it - just as a bit of fun.