Australian Highland Dress in 1898

[tpa]

I believe this journalist could have presented a running commentary on any of the current "red-carpet" affairs that are shown today. What a well described (and detailed) account. I can visualize the attire completely. If he had included colors of the cloth, any one would "see" it in their minds eye.

I'm sure that commenting on the underwear (or lack of) of celebrities on the red carpet would go down a treat, along with speculation as to how he came by the information.

[OC Richard]

Doublet and vest? Isn't the doublet the military style jacket that buttons to the neck?

There were two sorts of "doublet", the ones worn in the Army that had a short standing collar that were worn buttoned all the way up, and the civilian ones which had an open collar with ordinary lapels.

The doublet was by far the most popular civilian Highland jacket from c1840 to c1910.

Here it is! They were often cut like this, designed to hang open to reveal the vest (yes, it was usually called a "vest" back then)



This wonderful photo shows three styles of doublet: on the left is a fully trimmed civilian doublet, next is a plain civilian doublet, and next are two military-style doublets. All have the same style of cuffs and skirts, more or less.

[OC Richard]

a complete Highland costume just received from Scotland: a full-dress Highland doublet and vest, full kilt, shoulder plaid, pair kilt drawers, pair diced tartan hose, pair clan hose, Glengarry bonnet, shoulder brooch, sporran, skean dhu, black leather shoulder bolt, waist bolt, and pair shoes with buckles... perhaps the best Scotch costume in the colony...

Puts me in mind of this fellow, in the former colony in America

[Jock Scot]

Doublet and vest? Isn't the doublet the military style jacket that buttons to the neck?

Um, why the vest then? Other than making the tailor more money that is.

Beware! Rather unhelpfully Scottish tailors had, and sill do to an extent, a tendency to name their wares to what they thought was a good name. Certainly in those days the same style of jacket could easily be called several names, or even more confusingly, the same name but completely different style of jacket, depending on the tailor that made it.

[FinnKilt]

Doublet and vest? Isn't the doublet the military style jacket that buttons to the neck?

Um, why the vest then? Other than making the tailor more money that is.

Um, the point is that on the eastern side of the Great Atlantic, vest means what on the western side is called an undershirt, and what in North American English is called a vest is in eastern English called a waistcoat or perhaps jerkin – with the notable exception of high-visibility vests, where the whole term seems to have been adopted as such.

Aren't you familiar with the story about the North American businessman or equivalent preferring in summer to work in just vest and pants (=undershirt and underpants), when what he really meant, English-style, was waistcoat and trousers? = he'd taken his jacket off. Not his coat, which in Englishspeak means an overcoat.

In summer I often wear what I call a jerkin, i e sleeveless jacket with pockets. I'm a pockets addict, and all my kilts have pockets. To be honest, these too are probably now increasingly marketed in the UK as vests, and one knows they aren't underwear since they're not in the underwear section of the shop (or do I mean store?).

To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat behind him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys, watch, matches, pencil-case— all that makes life worth living, all that distinguishes the many-pocketed animal, the lord of creation, from the inferior one-pocketed or no-pocketed productions that hop or trip about permissively, unequipped for the real contest.
The Wind in the Willows, chapter 8: Toad has escaped from prison by crossdressing as a washerwoman, thus transgressing boundaries both of gender and class (class is probably the more serious), and therefore finding himself dispocketed.

[tpa]

In summer I often wear what I call a jerkin, i e sleeveless jacket with pockets. I'm a pockets addict, and all my kilts have pockets. To be honest, these too are probably now increasingly marketed in the UK as vests, and one knows they aren't underwear since they're not in the underwear section of the shop (or do I mean store?).

When I was young we used to call any sort of short pocketed outer jacket a jerkin, although it seems to have fallen into disuse now in favour of anoraks. They always had and needed sleeves, in Scotland at least. What you are now referring to, I would call a body warmer these days.

Confusing isn't it?

[FinnKilt]

When I was young we used to call any sort of short pocketed outer jacket a jerkin, although it seems to have fallen into disuse now in favour of anoraks. They always had and needed sleeves, in Scotland at least. What you are now referring to, I would call a body warmer these days.

Confusing isn't it?

Now when I was young(er),anorak was a rainproof torso overgarment that had no opening down the front, but had to be pulled over the head (like the Greenlandic anoraq from which it got its name). If it opened, i e was a jacket, then it was a windcheater or a windjammer – two words I've not come across for a long time. But then at some point, the jackets became anoraks, and pull-over-head rainproofs became cagoules, tho' I think a cagoule was always a lighter, even flimsier item than an anorak had been.

Body warmer is obviously in the same class of vocabulary as leg warmer etc. But does that name really work for something closer to a flyfisher's jacket (full of pockets and giving you maximum freedom to do things with your arms?). My jerkins are summer garments. I am amazed every winter at folk who wear quilted sleeveless torso overgarments, as altho' it is certainly important to keep the torso warm, for me personally it's also the arms that are uncomfortable with cold (unlike the kilted knees, which – provided there are warm socks/hose and good boots/shoes below, cope well with temperatures unheard-of in England and even in Scotland only on higher ground.

Yes, it's confusing. ;-)

[orangehaggis]

I'm late to the party again, but wool can be washed without much harm coming to the garment. Dry-cleaning is harsh and does damage to wool fibre. I find my suit trousers last longer if I hand wash them in WARM water and then take them to be pressed once dry. I wash kilts in the bath, again with warm water, and then baste the pleats and press them out myself. I never send jumpers to the dry cleaners, either.

Wool washes out quite well by hand. The damage comes when friction is applied. Agitation of the garment during laundering must be kept to a minimum. Machine drying is, of course, out of the question.

I'm sure that the under-trews could be cleaned with greater ease than one might otherwise think. I wonder what the interior construction of under-trews might've been like.

Orangehaggis