To plaid or not to plaid.....thats the question??

[OC Richard]

If I may, a word of warning about using these pictures as examples of what to wear with Highland attire. These wonderfully constructed pictures were arranged as eye candy during the height of the romantic and wealthy Victorian love affair with the Highlands of Scotland, by a skilled, but commercially minded artist. Please do not regard the subject matter in the pictures as any general guide to Highland attire for the masses.These subjects are at best, if you like, wearing Sunday best and are more likely to have been dressed from the local Laird's wardrobe.

True that many of the subjects were kitted out by their Clan Chiefs in outrageous finery for these portraits (The Highlanders of Scotland, commissioned by Queen Victoria) and can't be used as a guide to ordinary Highland Dress of the period.

However many of the subjects are in absolutely plain attire, without a bit of metal, lacking things we take for granted today such as cap badges, flashes, and kilt pins, wearing ordinary outdoor hightopped working boots, utterly plain jackets which wouldn't be considered appropriate for kiltwearing today due to their ordinary cut, and so forth. This is as plain and workmanlike as Highland Dress can get, and is backed up by a vast number of contemporary photos showing exactly the same dress.

Back to the topic of fly plaids, as far as I can tell these are a quite recent invention, the plain square of fringed tartan that's pinned at the shoulder and simply hangs down.

What has been around since c1800 is what was called the 'belted plaid' (not the great kilt of the 18th century) which is a complex expensive rather heavy tailored garment that has a belt that buckles around the waist and a mass of fringed pleated tartan that goes up and has a sewn-in tab that's pinned at the shoulder. It was adopted by the kilted Highland regiments to simulate the appearance of the great kilt when that garment was abolished c1800, and it's been worn in civilian Evening Dress as well ever since.

Here's a thread where the 'belted plaid' is explained and Steve posts detailed photos showing its construction

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...79/index3.html

The wearing of plaids with civilian Evening Dress was pretty much out of style by the 1920s when Highland Evening Dress underwent simplification and the oldfashioned wearing of dirks, swords, dirkbelts, swordbelts, plaids, brooches, and even a pair of all-steel Highland pistols became passe. The new look was simple, clean, and elegant. Not to say that people still didn't wear belted plaids (not the great kilt type) sometimes, they did, but not as often as previously.

The very height of late Victorian Highland Evening Dress



the clean elegant simplicity of Evening Dress of the 1920s and 1930s



the ordinary Highland Dress of the 1860s and 1870s, precisely as appears in The Highlanders of Scotland

[creagdhubh]

The 1920s and 30s are much more my speed!

[Nathan]

The 1920s and 30s are much more my speed!

I love the look of the Victorian era stuff but I understand the century in which I live.

[creagdhubh]

I love the look of the Victorian era stuff but I understand the century in which I live.

Same here.

[MacCathmhaoil]

There is a photo that has appeared here before of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton and his brother Lord George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk, both wearing full plaids, not fly plaids. I doubt you'd see this or anything close to it today! Not terribly practical attire but quite a striking look none the less.
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...16/index3.html

[OC Richard]

What I see all the time here in the USA is an odd mixing of the classic 20th century Highland evening attire with High Victorian gaudiness, with some 18th century Colonial-like Cullodenness thrown in for good measure. I guess it's the freedom of borrowing from any time-period whatever and throwing it all together.

What I find really interesting is the current wearing of Utilikilts with Renaissance clothing.

[David Thorpe]

The majority of questions posed here are from people unfamiliar with TCHD, mostly in the US, about what they should or should not wear. In many cases, objection is taken to some aspect of proper TCHD, whether due to pure and innocent ignorance or an apparent grating on American sensibilities. There are predominant inclinations toward costumery, mixing Highland wear with more familiar American dress, packing on the maximum bling possible and impatience - wanting the whole ball of wax right now at a rock-bottom price.
I have no solution to offer - just an observation.

[artificer]

What I see all the time here in the USA is an odd mixing of the classic 20th century Highland evening attire with High Victorian gaudiness, with some 18th century Colonial-like Cullodenness thrown in for good measure. I guess it's the freedom of borrowing from any time-period whatever and throwing it all together.

What I find really interesting is the current wearing of Utilikilts with Renaissance clothing.

You missed the Faux-Braveheart woad face paint and Claymore worn with all the above.

[MacLowlife]

There is a photo that has appeared here before of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton and his brother Lord George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk, both wearing full plaids, not fly plaids. I doubt you'd see this or anything close to it today! Not terribly practical attire but quite a striking look none the less.
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...16/index3.html

They are heading to his wedding ( to a "fitness instructor" no less). Other than the good advice about not outdoing the bride, I think one's own wedding is the perfect time to Get Very Dressed Up.

The story of that marriage and the Fitness Instructor's later life is moving, to say the least: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...lla-Stack.html
'

[AFS1970]

I have a belted plaid, and since it ties around my waist then drops down before coming back up to my shoulder, I have really never noticed it pulling backwards. The only time it was a factor, was when I was with a color guard and I wore it with a uniform sweater (jumper), that being a more flexible and stretchable garment did tend to allow for more pull. That was solved by keeping a little more of the plaid pulled down int he front.

There is one other plaid factor that I have not seen addressed in this thread yet. It is one I sadly have experience in. I did not follow the advice of some when I ordered my first kilt and that was to order my plaid at the same time. My kilt was ordered from Scotland and my plaid was made here. While they are the same tartan and the thread colors match well enough, there is a slight difference in the pattern, showing that the different mills interpreted the tartan slightly differently. If you saw me wearing the plaid with my kilt, you would probably not notice it without an impolite inspection, but I notice it.

So I will say this, while it adds to the expense, and there may be better things to spend that part of the budget on, if you think you might wear it sometimes with your kilt, get them at the same time so they are a complete match.