Contextualising

Osborne and Little beaded cushion

Designers Guild bright coloured cushion 

Tartan today is a mix of traditional and modern this is both within fashion and interiors.

 For interior designers use the traditional pattern but add small changes or hints that bring it up to date for modern tastes. This is shown in Osborne and Little's cushion with the beading and the colours used by Designers Guild on there cushion.

Vivienne Westwood Gold 2011

 McQueen's Highland Rape 1995

Fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen took tartan an unfashionable trend and transformed it into what it is today. How they used tartan in there collections made it more acceptable in contemporary fashion. The collection in titled 'Highland Rape' was the beginning of McQueen's career in 1995.

Tartan in high street fashion also uses the traditional pattern with a modern twist. This can be seen in Topshop's take on a checked shirt with frayed edges.

Topshop 2011

Matthew Barney Cremaster 3 2002

Artists have also used tartan in their pieces like contemporary artist Matthew Barney. He is a multimedia artist who created the film series 'The Cremaster Cycle' a five part series created between 1995 and 2002. The 3rd film included a character dressed in a stereotypical highland outfit including tartan. The films are a very complex and surreal mix of historical, autobiographical, mythological and phantasmagorical stories.

http://www.designersguild.com/
 http://www.osborneandlittle.co.uk/
 http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/
 http://makingtheunfinished.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/alexander-mcqueen-highland-rape-aw-1995/
http://www.topshop.com/
Bonham-Carter, Charlotte/Hodge, David (2009) The Contemporary Art Book