Kilt
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A kilt is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak. The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt. Since the 19th century, it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland, and more broadly with Gaelic or Celtic heritage.
One of the earliest depictions of the kilt is this German print showing Highlanders around 1630
The modern Scottish kilt worn with formal evening wear (2009) and a highly decorative sporran hanging from the waist
General William Gordon, shown wearing a kilt—part of the uniform of the short-lived 105th Regiment of Foot—in the painting by Pompeo Batoni (1765–66).
Oliver tartan kilt (2006)
Tartan
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Tartan is a patterned cloth with crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming simple or complex rectangular patterns. Tartans originated in woven wool, but are now made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland, and Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns.
Three tartans; the left and right are made with the "modern" dye palette; the middle is made with "muted" colours.
1970s Missoni tartan knit jumper (sweater) and skirt set
Visualisation of 2/2 twill weave: the black weft threads go two over then two under the orange warp threads, staggered by one thread each pass (resulting in a diagonal pattern). In the actual cloth, the white gaps would be closed.
Close-up view of traditional tartan cloth, showing pattern of diagonal "ribs" of colour; this is a five-colour tartan, in scarlet red, black, yellow, azure blue, and crimson red.