During any given season, it’s a dead cert you’re going to see at least a few designers splash tartan through their latest collection. As Scotland’s most famous export, the plaid pattern has been inspiring creative minds from its very inception, going beyond its OG status as clan signifier to the main stage as a cultural and subcultural behemoth. 

It’s appeal likely lies in its complexity: tartan’s woven checks are simultaneously the marker of the establishment – worn by royalty and utilised by various factions of the armed forces – and the anti-establishment alike. Show a fashion fan a scrap of red tartan and it’s highly likely Vivienne Westwood’s punk-era bondage trousers or Alexander McQueen’s controversial Highland Rape collection will be conjured up almost immediately in their mind’s eye.

Now, a new exhibition taking over Dundee’s V&A Museum aims to unpack its history, as well as its future, documenting its earliest days right up to 2023, when the likes of Charles Jeffrey, Dilara Findikoglu, Chopova Lowena, and Nicholas Daley are ripping up its rulebook and reimagining it through a brand new lens. Open until January 2024, here are five reasons you should be booking your train to Scotland to see it.

THERE ARE SOME MAJOR FASHION GRAILS ON SHOW

…like a corset from Alexander McQueen’s wildly controversial AW95 collection Highland Rape, which was inspired by England’s brutal attacks on – or ‘rape’ of – the region. Though critics claimed he was romanticising the rape of women through his series of ripped, dramatically dishevelled tartan looks, McQueen insisted it was more of an exploration of the dark side of Scottish history. Vivienne Westwood’s iconic bondage trousers are also on show alongside her equally legendary SEX-era tits t-shirt. With the late designer making her name on the subversion of typically British sartorial codes, tartan featured heavily within almost each and every collection she put out (there’s also a fab Royal Doulton x Westwood tartan bone-china tea set and a pair of her Rocking Horse boots on display). Elsewhere, John Galliano’s 2011 Glengarry bonnet, designed during his seminal stint at Dior, rubs up alongside Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel looks (Coco was a huge fan of Mary, Queen of Scots and her signature boucle owes a lot to plaid), Grace Wales Bonner’s checked adidas tracksuits, and Rei Kawakubo’s shredded plaid 2000 Comme des Garçons collection. Walter Van Beriendonck, Dries Van Noten, and Zandra Rhodes are all also repped in the V&A’s halls. 

IT DOESN’T GLOSS OVER THE UNPLEASANT SIDE OF TARTAN’S HISTORY

People tend to romanticise Scotland, even right now in the present day, declaring it perhaps more forward-thinking and open-minded than is really truthful – for every Scot in support of LGBTQ+ rights for example, there are plenty more frothing at the mouth at the mention of pronouns and trans people. In this vein, unlike some shows, which gloss over their topic’s unsavoury elements, the V&A exhibition doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to documenting the dark history of tartan. A section of the space is dedicated to its links to slavery, and the men, women, and children trafficked from Africa and the Caribbean in the 1700s and forced into gruelling, back-breaking work in plantations, with each wearing a specific tartan to signify who they ‘belonged’ to. Highlighted here is the brilliant, BAFTA-winning film 1745, which you can watch here – a great way to understand the complexities 

IT EXPLORES HOW TARTAN IS BEING REIMAGINED BY A NEW GENERATION

Scottish designers Charles Jeffrey and Nicholas Daley – whose parents actually met in Dundee and started their own soundsystem night – are both featured within the show. Both designers have spent their careers dipping into their Scottish heritage, turning out their own tartans in the process. Beyond Jeffrey and Daley, Chopova Lowena’s cult kilt and a dramatic gown by Dilara Findikoglu demonstrate how Scotland’s famous textile clashes and compliments motifs from other cultures, and garments like Violet Chachki’s iconic spring to fall transitioning tartan look from series seven of Drag Race and 70s legends Bay City Rollers merch offer a look at how it has permeated pop culture.

THERE’S A WHOLE HOST OF CULTURAL EVENTS PLANNED ACROSS THE YEAR

The V&A Dundee is taking the kind of conversations, events, and workshops beyond the confines of London where most are usually concentrated and bringing them to the east coast of Scotland. Upcoming is a talk between Scottish Hollywood actor and Romy & Michele icon Alan Cumming and curator Simon Sladen, who will go deep on the revered material. Later in the year, Charles Jeffrey and Nicholas Daley are also due to take the stage.