Some of the brighter clan setts are sometimes referred to as the dress tartans to
distinguish 
them from the darker tartans of the same name.
The result can be seen as an attempt to adapt existing darker designs to look like the white setts used for the arisaids, formerly worn by Highland ladies. The result is then for both men and women as "evening dress". Whilst these arisaid setts were not clan designs, the combination of a clan tartan with an arisaid type of design is essentially modern and some clan chiefs do not recognise the Dress form of their tartans.
Since tartans were originally a functional outdoor cloth, the dress tartans are a product of emerging social patterns. often used to make kilts and dresses for Highland Dance competitors
