How did the kilt develop?

[Henry Mc]

This is my first post so be gentle

I can see from some of the posts that there are a few well researched folks while others are less into the history side of things.

This has possibly been covered before but I thought I would give a quick outline of where the kilt came from, or how it developed at least...according to my understanding of McClintocks theory.

c.2,000 years ago, the proto-Irish/Scots wore the usual European (barbarian ) attire of short wool jacket, short cloak and trousers/early trews.

Although the Romans were unable to overcome the Irish/Scots/Picts they nevertheless influenced those around them with whom they traded, fought and married etc. One of those areas was in clothing fashion. So the Irish/Scots aristocracy adopted the Roman style of tunica and toga, while the lower orders maintained the traditional fashion of short jacket, trews and short cloak.

This was the fashion of these peoples through many centuries (I'm sure there were variations and additions to this but the basic fashion remained over the years).

During the middle ages 13th/14th centuries the two styles came together and the short jacket, trews and brat (large cloak) along with a long tunica or leine became the norm for the next several centuries.

The leine was frowned upon by the centralising English government because of its abundent use of cloth. With the encroaching English colonisation of Ireland during the 16th century the leine seemed to reduce in volume.

According to McClintock, the trews were not particularly tailored around the body and the long leine served the added purpose of hiding this. As the leine reduced over the 16th century the brát cloak) began to be used as a means of disguising the top of the trews, eventually the brát was lengthened over the waist and the filidhmór was born

Thats my understanding - I stand to be corrected...Slán.

[Downunder Kilt]

For a good read I suggest you have a look and the New House Highland site ( advertiser at the bottom of the page) and read some of Matt Newsomes blog section. Covers all you need to know re the kilt, tartan and a whole heap of other things to do with scottish wear

[neloon]

Henry,
We know from Bishop Leslie that the Highlanders of the mid 1500s wore short trews to facilitate wading through wet vegetation/rivers etc. and a brat plus feileadh (blanket) round the shoulders and this ties in with the well known picture by de Heere shown here



(I see no reason to believe the suggestion that this picture has been altered.)

I feel it is more likely that, around 1580, someone first stuffed the feileadh through a waistbelt to make carrying it easier than that the brat became longer. I doubt if any changes in length of leine etc. would have had much influence on what was going on in Highland Scotland by that point in history. Of course, one should also recogniset that there was probably great variation in Highland dress in relation to location, social class, age etc. with a good deal of external influence on the periphery of the Highlands.
Alan

[Riverkilt]

No kilt historian. Always figured common sense - that certain parts of the body NEED to adjust to variations in temperature and kilts provided that FREEDOM.

[Henry Mc]

Henry,
We know from Bishop Leslie that the Highlanders of the mid 1500s wore short trews to facilitate wading through wet vegetation/rivers etc. and a brat plus feileadh (blanket) round the shoulders and this ties in with the well known picture by de Heere shown here

http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/up...Eqpj3rjk_c.jpg

(I see no reason to believe the suggestion that this picture has been altered.)

I feel it is more likely that, around 1580, someone first stuffed the feileadh through a waistbelt to make carrying it easier than that the brat became longer. I doubt if any changes in length of leine etc. would have had much influence on what was going on in Highland Scotland by that point in history. Of course, one should also recogniset that there was probably great variation in Highland dress in relation to location, social class, age etc. with a good deal of external influence on the periphery of the Highlands.
Alan

***

[Woodsheal]

Read these:

http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/scottish-articles

[neloon]

Read these:

http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/scottish-articles

Useful for re-enactors, I'm sure, but largely a re-hash of old stuff such as McClintock. His book was a great step forward at the time of publication but it needs to be remembered that his intention was to demonstrate that the kilt was not Irish in origin. However, in doing this, he seems to have left an impression in some quarters that Irish and Highland dress were much more closely related than in reality they were. Recent archaeological work has shown that the Irish and Highland q-Celts, though sharing a common language, were otherwise separate culturally. With that in mind, I think the emphasis in the OP on the leine etc. is not quite right vis-a-vis the feileadh.
Alan

[OC Richard]

I have the McClintock book and what's refreshing about it is that he presents the evidence, all the evidence which was available to him at that time.

I don't recall him indulging in idle speculation but rather being more about the evidence, which he lets speak for itself.

Maybe I overlooked the theorizing bits? I have the book right here; I should give it another look.

But yes in short it appears that the kilt somehow evolved from the mantle or brat cf some early illustrations which show the Great Kilt with a border of fur or fringe.

Many years ago for my Ren Faire costume I made just such an intermediate garment, a wool mantle/brat in a brown plaid more or less intermediate between tweed and tartan, and with a fur border all around. This garment I could wear either as a brat or wrapped around the body as a proto-Great Kilt.

About the fit/shape of the traditional Highland trews, it's one of several things that Bulgarian folk costume/folk art/folk music has in common with those of the early Highlanders. The Bulgarian pants are called poturi and likewise are baggy around the body but get increasingly tight as they go down the legs, being quite form-fitting and socklike on the lower legs. But unlike trews they don't have socks built into them.

[neloon]

Richard,
I don't think I implied that McClintock was "indulging in idle speculation". I was merely suggesting that the publication of his book with the title "Old Irish & Highland Dress" in the early 1940s overegged the very connection that he was disputing i.e.that the kilt had originated in Ireland and was therefore appropriate as Ireland's National dress. Naturally, he wrote the book from an Irish perspective that was consistent with the long-held view that all Highland culture had come from Ireland and that terms such as "leine" and "brat" (but not "feileadh") were transportable*.
Alan

*"brat" in Scots Gaelic means veil/curtain cf. "bratach" = flag. Scots Gaelic for cloak/mantle is "falluinn". "leine" was originally any linen garment - nowadays = shirt

[David Thorpe]

Not to derail the discussion, but my understanding is that Dalriada spanned northeastern Ireland and some of western Scotland as a single kingdom. Would that not suggest that parts of what is now Scotland had extensive cultural ties with parts of Ireland? Were there not more defined cultural differences between the Dalriadans and the Picts, Bretons, Norse and Angles than between the Dalriadans in Ireland and western Scotland?
More to the point of discussion, since the kilt is now associated with the Highlands, could there not be Pictish and Norse influences which were more significant than those of Ireland?