Tartan Weddings

Joyce grew up on the west coast of Scotland where the scenery and soft muted colours of the mountains, sky and sea had a big influence on her love of colour and texture. She is passionate about her homeland and believes her preference for soft flowing shapes evolves from the beautiful surroundings of the rolling green hills and wide cloudy skies.

Tartan started to play an important part in Joyce’s designs in 1993 when a friend gave her a Montgomery tartan scarf to make into a garment. Her friend’s tartan outfit drew lots of admiration when she attended a function with her husband, he wore his Montgomery kilt and she wore her matching tartan evening outfit. This inspired the idea to design a tartan wedding collection where the bride coordinates with the groom’s kilt and all the colours of the wedding party tone with the groom’s tartan. The majority of Scottish grooms get married wearing a tartan kilt. This is a very strong and colourful look and Joyce feels that the bride should also have a strong presence that balances the groom. Scottish people are very proud of their heritage and enjoy wearing their family tartan or generic tartan wherever they are in the world.

Joyce feels that Scottish men look resplendent in Highland Dress but that apart from traditional kilts and blouses that there weren’t many interesting tartan outfits for modern women to wear. She set about designing in tartan and calls the collection Tartan Spirit which embodies the tradition of Scottish heritage in an up to date concept which brings tartan for women into the 21st Century. Her tartan designs have taken her all over the world notably to Fashion Week in Los Angeles and Dressed to Kilt in New York.

Always the artist/designer Joyce is at her happiest surrounded by fabrics in her design studio in Glasgow working on the mannequin creating new ideas which put different tartans together. She feels some tartans are too masculine for her designs which led her to design 2 exclusive tartans which are called Tartan Spirit and By Storm.  Tartan usually has a back story explaining what each colour represents. Joyce says she could say that the purple is for the heather on the hills, the green is for the fir trees, the dark blue is for the deep Scottish lochs and the fuchsia is for the wild mountain flowers. In reality they are “colours Joyce likes”, however, the reason she likes these colours is steeped in her Scottish heritage. In the 2012, Queen’s New Year Honours list Joyce was delighted and honoured to be awarded an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) for her services to the Textile Industry.

Joyce was delighted to have the opportunity to show her tartan designs to the beautiful ladies of Japan in a Tartan Exhibition that toured five major Japanese cities in 2018/19. The idea of a Tartan Wedding in this romantic far off land of Scotland will inspire many Japanese couples to come over and experience Scotland for themselves.

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