Barbour Tartan Guide

Barbour Tartan Guide

Posted by John on 20th Jun 2014

#Barbour Tartan Guide

Barbour is renowned for their iconic Tartan linings, it often adds to the authenticity of a real Barbour classic. For me, Barbour’s Tartan represents continuing pride in their roots, and celebrates their Scottish heritage. It’s brilliant that Barbour have not lost touch with this inherited legacy, and continue to include snippets of their humble beginnings throughout their range.

The design of the Barbour Tartans derived from the district of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, where the family name, Barbour, originated in the 13th century.” – John Barbour

Barbour Logo

The design of the Barbour Tartans derived from the district of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, where the family name, Barbour, originated in the 13th Century.

Original and Authentic Barbour Tartans

Barbour have created a short film explaining the origins of their iconic Tartan patterns. In this compelling video, Helen Barbour explains how on a weekend away in Edinburgh, she tapped her family details into a large database to find out her family Tartan. To her surprise, she couldn’t find the Barbour family or their family Tartan.

Helen’s mother, Dame Margaret Barbour, believed they were using the Dress Gordon because they had a family connection with it; but after speaking to Douglas Kinloch Anderson, who owns Kinloch Anderson the leading renowned experts in Scottish Tartan, it was confirmed that there wasn’t actually a Tartan associated with the Barbour family at all. Douglas explained how they could create a Tartan to be connected to the Barbour family name, but it had to be done in the correct way. It was paramount that the Tartan design had to have some level of proper origin and some foothold in Scotland. So Helen began working with Kinloch Anderson to develop their own tartan, in order to express their Scottish identity.

It’s wonderful to see how Barbour have celebrated their family origins in Scotland, through the development of the Barbour collection of Tartans.” – Kinloch Anderson

The Tartan they created derived from the district of Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, where the family name, Barbour, originated in the 13th century. Since, more and more colours of their Tartan have been required, but they all descend from the same “sett”, which means they share both the same pattern and weight of lines. They’ve been specially designed with the experts at Kinloch Anderson of Edinburgh, all the while with historic prominence as the forefront priority…

Tartan is a gift that Scotland has given to the world” – Kinloch Anderson

Barbour Muted Tartan

Barbour Muted Tartan

Barbour Dress Tartan

Barbour Dress Tartan

Barbour Cardinal Tartan

Barbour Cardinal Tartan

Barbour Modern Tartan

Barbour Modern Tartan

Barbour Classic Tartan

Barbour Classic Tartan

Barbour Ancient Tartan

Barbour Ancient Tartan

A selection of Barbour item with tartan

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Comments

Neal Baguley

Hi, I am trying to match the lining in my wife’s new Barbour international waxed jacket, the label says ‘The Original Barbour Tartan’. It may be that the colour representation shows it as green, whereas it is more light and dark blue/grey squares. Is there a tartan called ‘Original’ that I can get a scarf in as a gift for my wife?

Megan

Hi Neal, thank you for your message. Barbour have multiple variations of the Original Barbour Tartan so without seeing it visually, I would not be able to identify which scarf you would require sorry. If you would like to email or Facebook message us a photo and we will be able to source the correct scarf for your wife. We look forward to hearing from you.


Rachael Cook

Hi! A great article but can’t see the tartin I need! I am reupholstering a 1950 land rover using upcycled Barbour jackets. The seats I’ve used the bedale jacket style and door cards I used the outlander. However I need a few metres to do headlining. Any idea what either of those linings are called and where you can buy it from? Many thanks.

Megan

Hi Rachael, Thank you for your comment and it’s great to hear the project you are doing. The Bedale jacket is one of Barbour’s classic jackets therefore the lining is classic tartan. These tartan linings are designed specifically for Barbour products so they may not be available to purchase however we would advise contacting them to see if you can obtain the material you are looking for. I have provided their contact details below: www.barbour.com/uk/contact-us We hope this helps.

Rachael Cook

That’s great, Thank you for your help. I think contact g barbour directly maybe the only way. I appreciate your time to answer.