The basic dress for men in the seventeenth century included Celtic brogues (a kind of mocassin), knee - length tartan hose of an argyle pattern, a long saffron dyed linen shirt of ample folds and yardage, and a mantle of of wool, which in Scotland evolved into the kilt of today. Originally, the kilt was a large rectangular plaid variously arranged on the body, but generally belted at the waist producing the familiar kilted pleats. District setts grew out of traditional weaving patterns and the local availability of vegetable dyes. In Scotland, the circumscribing geography of mountain and glenencouraged the association of certain district setts with the dominant local clan.

However, the modern idea of the Scottish tartan as a kind of "clan uniform" seems to have developed by analogy to the regimental tartans of the 1780s, after the repeal of the ban on Highland dress. Before that time, a poor Highlander wore any wool he could get his hands on, while a rich one traded with other districts or else had a sett of his own made to suit his individual taste. This was a Celtic Society, with individual vanity setting the fashion statement. There was no need then to manifest group identity with a uniform: A person lived all her life with the same clan, in the same place, and with the same leaders. What was needed was a sense of personal identity, always achieved through individual adornment.

All of us at Argyle came together in the Catskill Mountains of Oneonta, New York in 2001. We all sport argyle in various forms and colors to exercise our individuality. We continue to live as a clan though not all sharing the same longitude and latitude coordinates.