Tartan ( Scottish Gaelic : breacan [ˈpɾʲɛxkən] ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming simple or complex rectangular patterns. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland , as Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns. The earliest surviving samples of tartan-style cloth are around 3,000 years old and were discovered in Xinjiang , China.
Outside of Scotland, tartan is sometimes also known as " plaid " (particularly in North America); however in Scotland, a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth which can be worn several ways.
Traditional tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven in usually matching warp and weft in a simple 2/2 twill pattern. Up close, this pattern forms alternating short diagonal lines where different colours cross; from further back, it gives the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of rectangles and lines known as a sett .