Highland Dress

[Doctor Jones]

In discussing Highland Dress it helps to use consistent terminology; otherwise discussions sometimes go nowhere due to two people simply using the same words differently, or using different terms for the same thing.

For me the terms "historical" and "traditional" have quite distinct meanings, when discussing things such as Highland Dress and folk music.

A traditional thing is a currently existing, currently used modern thing which goes back to unknown origins and has an unbroken lineage of evolution from that unknown origin to the present day.

So the various elements of Highland Dress, the distinctive shoes, the kilt, the sporran, the "Scotch bonnet", all go back to unknown origins. Yes one can speculate, but actual evidence, no. These things have all been in continuous use from unknowable early times until today, and during that time have gone through a number of evolutionary changes which have resulted in the forms we see today. It's why the term "modern traditional Highland Dress" is not an oxymoron, but rather a redundancy. To be traditional is to be modern.

Now what if we go back along that unbroken evolutionary chain and pluck out a sporran style, a jacket style, a shoe style from a specific point in the past. To wear that thing today would be to wear a historical thing, not a traditional thing. This is because the tradition continued to evolve after the period in question.

To put it visually here is the chart of a traditional thing:

Unknown Origin 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The Present Day

the number 1 through 9 representing examples of the thing observable in old paintings, photographs, or verbal descriptions, 1 being the earliest evidence, 9 being the most recent form before it evolved into the currently existing form.

To wear a vintage or reproduction example of the thing's form at stage 3, or stage 8, would be to wear a historical form rather than the modern, traditional, form.

Ditto if a thing has not survived to modern times, but went out of usage at some point in the past. It is, today, a historical thing and not a traditional thing.

It's why it looks alien, and odd, to a modern Highland Dress wearer who is of the tradition to see somebody wearing a mix of modern traditional things and historical things. They might wonder "what is that person's intention? To wear Highland Dress or to wear a historical costume?"

Time for pretty pictures!

A fellow c1860 showing the sorts of things that typify Victorian Highland Dress: a wide variety of jacket, sporran, bonnet, and shoe styles, and the wearing of long hair sporrans with all modes.

 

[Doctor Jones]

More fellows in the 2nd half of the 19th century

Now that's the ordinary Highland Dress one encounters over and over in vintage photos. I have hundreds more showing it.

Then there's the elaborate Highland Dress which a gent might wear when going out in the evening for some formal function.

For that all the weaponry came out. If everything is present it includes
1 sgian
1 dirk
1 sword
1 powder horn
2 pistols

By 1920 all of this had been swept away and a new, sleek, simple Evening Dress had appeared, with small pocketlike sporrans and several new jacket styles.

Cigarettes were mandatory!

Traditional Civilian Highland Dress hasn't changed much since.

 

[earl]

Doctor Jones, see you're a piper. Love the haunting sound of bagpipes and particularly enjoy their contemporary embodiment in bagpipe rock. Now that's some wondrous bagpipe music.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Hi, a recent Fedora Lounge lurker and now new member here.

I've been wearing Highland Dress for over 40 years.

I have a longer view, perhaps, than most kiltwearers due to having and studying a large number of books on Highland Dress and tartan including a collection of vintage Highland Dress catalogues from the 1920s through 1950s and a very large collection of vintage photos of gents in Highland Dress.

The charge or claim is often made that our "traditional Highland Dress" is a Victorian invention. A few years ago, in response to someone who vehemently took this stand, in a detailed response I demonstrated that every element of what we now consider "traditional Highland Dress" existed prior to Queen Victoria taking the throne in 1837.

What did become clear to me, and I've never seen anyone but myself address it, is that Traditional Civilian Highland Dress underwent a near-total transformation in the early years of the 20th century. At around the same time an entire suite of new sporran styles (or, rather, numerous variants of a single new type) and a number of new jacket styles emerged.

Also Highland Dress suddenly became much more systematised or compartmentalised, as TCHD sorted itself into two quite distinct categories, each with its dedicated footwear, sporran, shirt, necktie, and jacket. These were called Day Dress (or Outdoor Dress) and Evening Dress.

While it wasn't quite "anything goes" in the 19th century, for sure Victorian Highland Dress was much less orderly, and one often sees formal shoes, hose, and sporrans worn with Day tweed jackets, elaborate Evening Dress including quite plain jackets, and so forth.

The fact that new sporran and jacket styles emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, sweeping the old styles away, creates something of a wall or barrier that clearly divides pre-c1900 TCHD from post-c1900 TCHD.

Due to this not being widely understood, one invariably sees anachronistic Highland Dress at Renaissance Faires, Dickens Balls, American Civil War Balls, Victorian Balls, Steampunk costumes, etc. One simply couldn't wear a sporran style invented in 1910 in 1840, or 1861, or 1880.

Since that c1900-1910 near-total transformation of TCHD it has remained largely unchanged. Punctuated Equilibrium one might say! A gent could show up dressed entirely as he would at a 1920 Highland event at any Highland event today and not look out of place.

As a way of introduction here are a couple photos of myself, first the earliest photo I have of me in Evening Dress, taken in the late 1970s. The sporran and jacket were vintage items, the tartan is MacDonald of the Isles Hunting (one of the Allen Brothers designs).

Here I am in the early 1980s. I normally wouldn't be wearing a tartan tie with Highland Dress, this was a publicity shot and they wanted a tartan tie. The jacket is a vintage one dating to 1946, heavy Harris Tweed. The tartan is MacDonald (House Of Edgar Muted Range).

Here in the mid-1980s my full military-style piper's costume. The tartan is British Columbia, the pipes are by Glen, Edinburgh, c1860.

And here I am nowadays. (The ghillies are the same pair seen in the 1980s photos above, and I got that bonnet in the 1980s too.) The jacket is a vintage one off Ebay, the pipes are by RG Lawrie, Glasgow, c1900. The tartan is Isle Of Skye.

Excellent synopsis, Doctor Jones. One thing I'd point out is the codification of highland dress which occurred circa 1890 - 1910 was part of a wider trend in the evolution of menswear, reflecting the late Victorian mania for orderliness and formalized etiquette. The same timeframe also gave us the concepts of the suit (as opposed to "a suit-of-clothes"), morning dress, evening dress, city versus country wear, etc. This in turn parallels a wider pattern of highland dress echoing contemporary fashion, with certain adaptations. For instance, looking at portraits of Scottish aristocrats from the 18th century, the men's coats and waistcoats tend to follow the decade-by-decade evolution of lowland and English style, with certain adaptations such as waistcoat cutouts for the sporran, shorter tails for coats worn with kilts, etc.

 

[earl]

Doctor Jones, that's quite a fine collection of historical photos. My understanding is as yours. While the Victorian era ushered in quite an embrace of highland dress, it didn't start then The earliest literary reference to kilted clothing was 1582.

 

[Edward]

Thank-you, Doctor - great stuff. Completely agree abouyt how littled it has all changed since about 1920, perhaps reflecting the fact that Highland wear as 'regular clothing' is now pretty much extinct in Scotland, mostly reserved for formal occasions, where it has become ritualised and 'preserved'. Much like white tie. Which is, of course, superb for those of us looking to buy in to a first set of Highland clothing without huge expense. I'm gonig to be at a conference in Aberdeen next April where I know there will be a Ceildhi, and I plan to go Highland to that. Got my eye on a few 'ex-hire' places. My first kilt will likely be an 8oz wool-mix, but one that looks and hangs the part which will do for now. Eventually I'll pick up a 'proper' one, perhaps in County antrikm tartan (I most fancy the Presley one, but alas it is not commercially available).


BTW, for a formal, furry (rabbit, I think) sporran, how do you stop it shedding? I've had that problem with one I bought a few years ago and have had stored ever since (taking a long time to get around to putting the outfit together).

 

[earl]

Edward, see when you started this thread you said you have a Blair lineage. Did you consider the tartan for clan Blair? When picking up my tartan tie I'd considered the County Antrim tartan since my family lived there. But ultimately went with the clan tartan for the clan associated with my surname, MacKay. My surname is purportedly a "clansman" name as that surname branched off from a MacKay line in Galloway. Though obviously no clue if there is any actual descent from that line in my case given countless family lines with the same surname as mine. Am though quite enamored with this sort of thing.

 

[Edward]

Edward, see when you started this thread you said you have a Blair lineage. Did you consider the tartan for clan Blair? When picking up my tartan tie I'd considered the County Antrim tartan since my family lived there. But ultimately went with the clan tartan for the clan associated with my surname, MacKay. My surname is purportedly a "clansman" name as that surname branched off from a MacKay line in Galloway. Though obviously no clue if there is any actual descent from that line in my case given countless family lines with the same surname as mine. Am though quite enamored with this sort of thing.

The Blair tartan is quite nice - I have one of my Aeros lined in it. The other Scots links in the family are McCaw (no tartan I've ever been able to find) and Davison (likely linked to the Davidson clan). Too obscure to be included in thebasic range of affordable 'starter kilts', though. I'm opting to go for a first kilt in Pride of Scotland, for no better reason than I really like it aesthetically... I can also get an 8-yard one in 16oz Acrylic for about £30, as opposed to the close on £300 a new wool kilt of that weight would cost me. I'll see how often I wear it before I look at spending on something more expensive. (I am also vaguely considering a plain black one for casual wear around the house!). With care and buying the jacket ex-hire, I should be able to complete the outfit for something in the region of GBP150. If I end up only wearing it once a year after that, it's not so bad. Mind you, I may well find myself creating opportunities: this year has been an aberration ,but most years I find I wear white tie about half a dozen times, black tie the same, so it's the sort of thing worth having around.

 

[nightandthecity]

interesting thread, but please chaps, stop repeating the myth that bagpipes were banned after the 45.......
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132498

 

[Guttersnipe]

interesting thread, but please chaps, stop repeating the myth that bagpipes were banned after the 45.......
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132498

Interesting! I'm no expert in English common law; although, I believe Edward is (so please correct me if I'm wrong). But under the highly precedential system of English law, the cited 1747 case may of established a doctrine under which the use of "war" pipes was a prosecutable offense, in instances where the Crown chose to apply such a rule.

 

[nightandthecity]

Interesting! I'm no expert in English common law; although, I believe Edward is (so please correct me if I'm wrong). But under the highly precedential system of English law, the cited 1747 case may of established a doctrine under which the use of "war" pipes was a prosecutable offense, in instances where the Crown chose to apply such a rule.

This issue is dicussed in the bagpipe Forum thread I linked to, though I appreciate 7 pages of obscure piping history is probably heavy going for non-pipers! But the main point are these:

1] the unfortunate James Reid was convicted in England by an English court, so any precedent would not apply in Scotland which has a separate legal system.
2] he was not, in any case, convicted for playing bagpipes but for treason in being a member of a rebel army. The pipes only came into it because his defence was that he hadn't borne arms, the judge took the line that bagpipes, drums, trumpets, fifes etc in a military context are instruments of war. So any precedent would only apply to musicians (and not just pipers) in a rebel army, and in England.
3] Other pipers were acquitted on the grounds that they had been pressed, so clearly simply playing the instrument was not an issue. One of them (Nicholas Kerr) went on to be a well known bagpipe maker in the period we are told the instrument was illegal
4] Reid was not even a Highlander, but from the north-east Lowlands (as were a considerable chunk of the Jacobite army)

As for the Acts of proscription (which came into force after the Reid case), they make no mention of bagpipes. There is no evidence a single piper was prosecuted for anything - let alone playing bagpipes - under the Act. In any case, I think The Act only applied to the rebel clans and their territories - and most clans had been either Loyalist or neutral.

The fact is that bagpipes continued to be played in the Highlands throughout the period of the Act. The MacCrimmon and Rankin Colleges of Piping on Skye and Mull were in full swing. The first tutor for the Highland bagpipe was written during the period of the Act (the writer also drew himself in full Highland dress). There are numerous references to pipers and piping in the Highlands during this period and not one shred of evidence for their persecution. In any case the Act seems to have been only lightly enforced, even against Highland dress and carrying arms.

For good measure - especially as Reid was a Lowlander - it is worth pointing out that bagpipes also continued to be played in the Lowlands and parts of England during this period, indeed, it was the golden age of the officially accredited Burgh pipers in the Lowlands, especially in the north-east, a major stronghold of Jacobitism.

 

[Edward]

This issue is dicussed in the bagpipe Forum thread I linked to, though I appreciate 7 pages of obscure piping history is probably heavy going for non-pipers! But the main point are these:

1] the unfortunate James Reid was convicted in England by an English court, so any precedent would not apply in Scotland which has a separate legal system.
2] he was not, in any case, convicted for playing bagpipes but for treason in being a member of a rebel army. The pipes only came into it because his defence was that he hadn't borne arms, the judge took the line that bagpipes, drums, trumpets, fifes etc in a military context are instruments of war. So any precedent would only apply to musicians (and not just pipers) in a rebel army, and in England.
3] Other pipers were acquitted on the grounds that they had been pressed, so clearly simply playing the instrument was not an issue. One of them (Nicholas Kerr) went on to be a well known bagpipe maker in the period we are told the instrument was illegal
4] Reid was not even a Highlander, but from the north-east Lowlands (as were a considerable chunk of the Jacobite army)

As for the Acts of proscription (which came into force after the Reid case), they make no mention of bagpipes. There is no evidence a single piper was prosecuted for anything - let alone playing bagpipes - under the Act. In any case, I think The Act only applied to the rebel clans and their territories - and most clans had been either Loyalist or neutral.

The fact is that bagpipes continued to be played in the Highlands throughout the period of the Act. The MacCrimmon and Rankin Colleges of Piping on Skye and Mull were in full swing. The first tutor for the Highland bagpipe was written during the period of the Act (the writer also drew himself in full Highland dress). There are numerous references to pipers and piping in the Highlands during this period and not one shred of evidence for their persecution. In any case the Act seems to have been only lightly enforced, even against Highland dress and carrying arms.

For good measure - especially as Reid was a Lowlander - it is worth pointing out that bagpipes also continued to be played in the Lowlands and parts of England during this period, indeed, it was the golden age of the officially accredited Burgh pipers in the Lowlands, especially in the north-east, a major stronghold of Jacobitism.

You are quite right.

The short of it is that such laws are always highly debatable, and doubtless were wide enough to be applied as those interpreting them required. In reality, prosecutions on all sorts of laws are often applied with a very light touch where to go in hard would only make the situation worse. If memory serves, the main notion of the 'warpipes' was in the specific context of classifying pipers on the battlefield as combatants as opposed to other contexts. An interesting exemption to the general ban on Highland dress was the military: you wanted to wear a kilt, you had to join up. Mind you, I can't see many former Jacobites running to join the Blackwatch, especially as their 'Government Tartan' kilts were based on a Campbell design (though not directly Campbell tartan, as often claimed). Ha.

Interesting how the smaller modern sporran has evolved as very much a civilian item, while military regiments retain the longer, horsehair sporran. Informal daywear sporrans are also generally smaller again than full dress - though not by much.

Another thing which catches my interest is the coloured jackets in the illustration from the 20s. While no fan of some of the soccer-player-worthy garishness of some options, I do rather like a kilt jacket in a bottle green or a navy. I'm currently keeping half an eye out for a British number 2 dress tunic cut to kilt pattern, and/or the number 5 tropical dress equivalent (same thing, just in cotton drill). Nice mid-century look to them - the number 2 has been issued since the early fifties. I plan to dye one bottle-green and replace the military buttons with leather football types.

BTW, managed to get the whole outfit together for Aberdeen last week, very pleased with it. Now I need to get myself a navy Argyle jacket and waistcoat for the Chap Olympiad in July.... Been threatening to wear a kilt to that for years. Time I did, not sure anyone ever has before.

 

[Edward]

(For the avoidance of doubt, my kilt hose are ivory - not white - though I may well opt for navy in future. I like the ivory for evening wear. The Ghillie brogues turned out to be surprisingly comfortable; I had debated a buckles alternative or a Jacobite shoe for some time first, but in the end felt those would be OTT without a fly plaid or, perhaps, a lace jabot.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Oh, wow. Some guys have all the luck...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-years-genealogist-keeps-promise-grandmother/

 

[Edward]

Not sure how much I care for the Clan system being perpetuated, tbh. But for Clan obligations, an awful lot of the Culloden dead might well have had productive lives rather than going to their deaths in the interestsof putting an Italian on the throne who'd do nothing for them.

Couple of decent photos of me in the Argyle this time, taken at the Chap Olympiad in July:

Second shot was, I believe, taken on a 30s camera.

 

[Sloan1874]

Got it all on there, Edward! Very impressive. Oddly, I've only worn full Highland dress once in my life, that was with a tweed jacket for my brother's wedding. It was so long ago that I can hardly remember it, though we have photos to prove that I had no idea how to stand while wearing a kilt!
Thing is, I'd probably prefer wearing it it to rented black tie nowadays - one too many Moss Bros ill-fitting horrors. Weirdly, I saw Rufus Wainright play at T in the Park a few years ago and his backing band all came on in Highland regalia. Bathed in blue light they looked amazing, like the ghosts of Glen Coe - Wainright wasn't wearing it, claiming he wasn't manly enough to sport a kilt!

 

[Edward]

The really lovely thing about Highland dress too is that there's so much more scope for varying and making it your own than with black tie. My next step is probably going to be to look out for something that has more of a vintage-casual vibe to go with the kilt. Maybe tweed... I've gone full casual and worn it with an SJC polo before now, which is great on a hot day. Never tried carrying the Sgian Dhub when not in full rig, though, as that's legally a bit chancier!

 

[BoGam]

The collection was amazing really if you want to try more want to get your measurement do visit this measuring guide
https://cheapkilt.com/measuring-guides

 

[BoGam]

My take (and a lot of others) on the sgian dubh is that was a small utility knife (unlike the fighting dirk). I have (and have made) sgian dubhs with sharp edges but most often prefer to wear a knife handled bottle opener. At most social functions I have found such to be far more useful

Here are a couple of more pictures if anyone was interested:


Kilts originally were solid colored, tartans came afterwards. Solid color kilts are still a fine fashion option.

Solid Green

Solid Black

Many places sell "Jacobite" or "Highlander" shirts and accessories. Keep in mind that while dashing, this sort of attire is more costume than anything else and best suited for Highland Games or other Celtic events instead of everyday dress:

“Jacobite” Look (Tartan: weathered Lamont variant)

Compare this to regular daywear (Tartan: Royal Stewart)

Another formal one that seemed very appropriate for the Fedora Lounge

"Cocktails anyone?" (Tartan: Galbraith Ancient)

Cheers

Jamie

You have got a super selection of Kilts solid color kilts were looking most attractive than tartan (Y)
but tartan is also the heritage

 

[Edward]

Had three graduation ceremonies to attend yesterday; wore the kilt to them all. Everyone loved it (even those confused by it because I'm Irish. Heh.) Only snag was there's something wrong with my Argyle waistcoat - it seems to have shrunk in the wardrobe, so I wore a kilt belt instead!

New sporran for me at Christmas, a plain black casual one this time.