Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
Your tartan is beautiful!

I just want to point out that you have brought up three quite different animals:

1) the McIan drawings strike me as generic models dressed in fanciful costume, many of which would be viewed as historical at the time of their painting in 1845. (Note the goofy mix of mid-18th century features with mid-19th century ones.)

2) the MacLeay paintings are painstakingly accurate portraits of specific men, painted in the 1860s from life.

3) the Prince Charlie and Sheriffmuir appeared in the early 20th century, as part of a near-complete transformation of Highland Dress which included several new Evening jacket styles, and a complete overhaul of sporran styles.
OC Richard,

Thank you, I am very happy with that Tartan. It has gone to weaving so I'm even more excited to get the final product.

Forgive me for my unintentional conflation of McIan and MacLeay, I did not mean to suggest the depictions were comparable. For me, these were the earliest images I had of highlanders. While I came to realize later that McIan was fanciful depictions in some cases of long dead clan progenitors (I'm thinking of the MacDonald of the Isles image here). I guess I was just setting the stage for why my tastes might be a little different than others.

When it comes to MacLeay, I tend to see it as mostly historical, but I recognize my ignorance on the subject. I'll be honest since my original post I have done a little more searching, and come across many of your posts utilizing MacLeay's imagery. While I've come away with a little better understanding I'm still not sure I have a good enough understanding to incorporate aspects of this style into my wedding attire or even sure I should.

Which brings me to one of the reasons I am happy you commented here, if one wanted to try for a style similar to that seen in MacLeay, what would you recommend? You mentioned the plaids seem to blind people to the elements of historical highland dress, what elements if any do you think it is possible to incorporate with out crossing over into costuming or reenactment.

Thanks,
NPG