By Anna White Oktober 30, 2020

Our Top Tartan Halloween Costume Ideas

Here in the ScotlandShop office we are all very excited with Halloween next up on the calendar resulting in a lot of discussion around creating spooky and ghostly looks, and it got us thinking about how we could incorporate tartan into our outfit? Read on to uncover our favourite costumes!

Clueless - Cher Horowitz

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Our all time favourite tartan costume idea takes inspiration from Charlotte "Cher" Horowitz from the 1995 American comedy film Clueless. The film is loosely based on Jane Austen's novel Emma. With Alicia Silverstone playing the lead role of Cher, the film also features Stacey Dash, Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy. The film has since become a 90's icon with a spin off television sitcom and series of books following due to the success of the film.

For our perfect Cher outfit we suggest our Tartan Kilted Skirt, or for something slightly more daring our Mini Kilt, the Kilted Skirt pictured is in the bold yellow MacLeod Dress Modern tartan but can be made to order in over 500 variations so you are spoilt for choice whether you prefer pumpkin orange or ghoulish greys. Next you need a smart school jumper and we propose our Women's V Neck Lambswool Sweater in Cobble and to go with this we have our Women's Cashmere Mix Socks pictured in white. To finish off the outfit a few 90's school day accessories are required, our favourite being Cher's pink fluffy pen, but let your imagination run wild and pick some of your favourite 90's items.

Brave - DunBroch Family

Brave.jpg The DunBroch Family in Brave


If you are in need of a group costume, the DunBroch Family from the Pixar film Brave is an excellent choice! Father Fergus wears a traditional Feilidh Mor, also known as the Great Kilt, this is created by using one continuous piece of fabric 8 yards in length and wrapping it around your body and pinning the remainder over your shoulder. Check out our Great Kilt video if you need help pleating and wrapping. Although the women in the family aren't seen as wearing as much tartan throughout the film, that doesn't mean you can't don a beautiful tartan sash as you dress up as Merida or Elinor. We would recommend the Spirit of Alva or Auld Lang Syne tartans as the closest representation of the tartan seen in the film.

Friends - Rachel Green


Another TV Show that had gorgeous tartan outfits aplenty was the hugely successful American sitcom Friends. All three main female characters in the show can be seen sporting a tartan at one point throughout the 10 seasons, however Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Anniston, is best known for her preppy look on the show. It was really difficult for us to narrow down her famous plaid themed outfits for our how to style guide, but we settled on the all time favourite cream sweater Jennifer wore during the first season.

Halloween Inspired Tartans

Image The DunBroch Family in Brave


As well as searching for our top tartan Halloween outfit we have been flicking through the swatch books for our favourite Halloween inspired tartans featuring lots of pumpkin orange, petrifying purple, gruesome green and bone shaking black. The tartans pictured in our Halloween selection are Morrison Red Ancient, Pride of Scotland Modern, Black Watch, Montgomery Modern, MacGregor Ancient, Scotland Forever Antique and Rob Roy MacGregor Ancient.

From everyone here at ScotlandShop we all hope you have a brilliant Tartan Halloween and if you do incorporate tartan into your costume, we would love to see your pictures! And if you want to find out more about Halloween traditions in Scotland and where All Hallows Eve, as it used to be known, originated, then we have a blog dedicated to this 2000 year old tradition.