Trevor Bond, head of WSU Manuscripts Archives and Special Collections, smiled as he tied his crimson and grey tartan bowtie perfectly, and without a mirror.

Giuliana Plut, assistant brand manager for the WSU Tartan, said the apparel, merchandising design, and textile department gifted the tartan bowtie to Bond in recognition of work he’s done for the university and his role in the Cougar community.

Plut said they wanted to give Bond a tartan bowtie and a rose as a Valentine’s Day gift, “as a thank you for all the work he does, and so he can proudly wear his cougar pride every day.”

Bond has been at WSU for more than 10 years, working in different parts of the school as a librarian or teaching general education 110 and 111, Plut said. The AMDT department has gifted tartan Coug gear to exceptional faculty to show their appreciation, and they also gifted a bowtie to President Elson S. Floyd, she said.

However, another reason they are giving away tartan gear in particular is to grow awareness of the school’s official tartan, Plut said.

 “We’re one of only eight schools that has an official tartan through the International Tartan Association in Scotland,” she said.

A tartan is a specific kind of checked textile pattern, she said.  Initially the word tartan was used to differentiate between two types of popular clothing in Scotland, the cloak, which had a plaid pattern, and the kilt, which had a tartan pattern, she said. Today, when people refer to a tartan they’re probably referring to a registered Scottish plaid.

“We created it so that we could add a unique item to our schools selection of Coug gear,” Plut said. “We had a lot of support from students, faculty, alumni and die-hard Cougs.”

Caroline Yapp, a junior double majoring in apparel design and textiles and accounting, was involved in the final production stages of the tartan. A few years ago, online voting chose between three AMDT-student designed tartans to represent the university, she said. More than 30,000 WSU students and faculty voted, which went into the final decision, she said.

“Basically, a tartan is an interlocking weave that represents family and kinship,” Yapp said.

The pattern is officially registered to WSU through the International Tartan Association and will continue to benefit future Cougs, she said. Alumni and students who buy the tartan gear get to show they belong to WSU in a print that belongs just to WSU and give the proceeds back to the school, she said.

“It’s a great way of supporting and showing belonging to a community in a unique way,” Yapp said.

The department is hoping to use the Tartan in products that students will really enjoy, Plut said. The selection of available merchandise is set to expand with plans to introduce skinny ties hopefully by Mom’s Weekend, Plut said. One of the tartan Cougar items that is available is a bowtie, and Bond has worn a bowtie to work almost every day for the last five years, she said.

“Oh yeah, clip-ons are no good,” Bond said of his traditional bowties.

Bond said the increasing popularity of bowties among young men is, in his opinion, welcome and quite stylish. They’re showing up more and more in pop culture, too, from Justin Timberlake to the Jonas Brothers, he said.

“I’ve never watched ‘Doctor Who’ but I appreciate its promotion of bowties,” Bond said.

The tartan is distinctive among faculty and unique to our school, and it’s a great way to show Coug pride, Plut said. The roots of the tartan pattern are about recognizing community, and what better way to do so than with Cougar wear, she said.

 “It’s a symbolization of us as cougars,” Yapp said.