Wearing a kilt to a wedding for the first time

[OC Richard]

Happily the Highland Dress of the 1920s and 1930s is still with us today- it's what we consider "modern traditional Highland Dress" or simply "traditional Highland Dress".

For whatever reason the widely variable and somewhat chaotic Highland Dress of the Victorian period emerged out of The Great War as a much simpler, sleeker, and more organised fashion.

I'm talking about the ordinary then-current Highland Dress of the 1930s. Of course people in the 1930s could wear antiques, and if wealthy could afford bespoke clothing out of the reach of ordinary people.

Setting that aside, the most important thing to keep in mind about the Highland Dress of the 1930s is that there were two clearly-defined modes of dress, Day Dress and Evening Dress. Each of these modes of dress had their unique dedicated shirt, tie, jacket, sporran, hose, and shoes. Nothing but the kilt itself, and perhaps the flashes, could be worn in both modes.

Day Dress:
tweed Argyll jacket and waistcoat in Lovat, fawn, etc.
collared shirt with long tie
brown leather Day sporran or fur animal mask sporran
selfcoloured hose to match or co-ordinate with the jacket
plain black brogues

Evening Dress:
evening jacket and waistcoat in black, claret, dark green, dark blue, tartan, etc.
formal shirt with bow tie
seal-skin Evening sporran with silver cantle
tartan or diced hose
buckled shoes

Note that "semi-dress" sporrans didn't exist- as best I can determine they emerged with the Kilt Hire Industry in the 1970s.

Day Dress as made and sold in the 1930s





Various styles of Day sporrans in the 1930s: animal mask, hunting, Rob Roy, and the standard pocketlike style. All were brown. All of these are still in common production today, except for the "Culloden" style (#14 and 15 in the black & white photo)





Little has changed by the 1960s.



But these are just catalogues! People didn't really wear those things! I'm always amazed when people say that. Catalogue space is valuable and is given to things that people want to buy. A King or Duke can have his Saville Row tailor make anything, but the common man buys what is available- and these catalogues show what was most widely available- the products of the big Edinburgh and Glasgow firms.

In any case, here are these things being worn at weddings.