Piper's plaid with something other than a doublet

[Barb T]

....adjustments can be made to secure a fly plaid.

So I'm curious about exactly what you would do to "secure a piper's plaid" if you didn't have those big honking epaulets?? And I assume you mean piper's plaid, not a fly plaid? Because the issue doesn't arise with a fly plaid, and the question in this thread is specifically about a piper's plaid worn with something other than a doublet with sturdy epaulets.

[OC Richard]

To me the wearing of a modern stitched "piper's plaid" looks strange and anachronistic with anything other than the military-style doublet for the simple reason that the modern stitched long plaid is a recent invention designed specifically to be worn with military-style doublets.

This change to the way long plaids are made, and look, far post-dates the early 20th century sea-change in civilian Highland Dress under which long plaids ceased to be worn with civilian Highland Dress.

It's like wearing a Victorian frock coat with camouflage pants- the two are from different centuries.

In the Victorian period long plaids were commonly worn in the military and by civilians, originally loosely draped around the body. In the army a trend started of wrapping them more tightly. This trend seems to have accelerated when civilians stopped wearing them.

The army used plaid brooches with the long plaids, the loosely-draped civilian long plaid was usually worn without brooch.

So if I were to wear a long plaid with civilian dress I would want the traditional original non-stitched kind, and loosely draped around the body. It would look like historic Highland Dress rather than traditional.

A Victorian civilian wearing a long plaid with an Argyll jacket



Here's a civilian wearing a long plaid with an Argyll jacket, but having the plaid tighter, and using a brooch



A looser style of wearing the long plaid



Loosely draped but with brooch



Victorian soldiers could wear the long plaid loosely too



Here is why they weren't called "piper's plaids"... because they were never exclusively worn by pipers either in the army or in the civilian world. Two officers of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders showing the typical rather haphazard way plaids were worn around the body



Something rare in Victorian military photos, a plaid pleated in a precise way