Why the Kilt?

[Tobus]

Steve points out what many scholars have said over the years: most of the world originally wore unbifurcated clothing of some sort. Granted, many cultures had simple long tunics (which are still worn in the Middle East, for example). In the Scottish Highlands, it would seem to make sense that they wore a base tunic or long shirt and added a thick layer of warm layered wool over that, out of necessity. Some of the earliest descriptions of Highlanders mention that they wore their plaids as folded mantles, then unfolded and wrapped themselves completely in their plaids to sleep, etc., but would also cast them aside to fight or to engage in other physical activity where the plaid would be cumbersome. The great kilt was likely just the simplest way to provide great warmth when needed, but also give them the versatility to shed it quickly. Rather than tailoring it into a close-fitting shaped garment, they chose to keep it as basically a big blanket that could be reconfigured to a multitude of uses. For their purposes, it was a do-everything item. That's very sensible for the amount of traveling by foot that they did.

[stickman]

Yes Tobus, I know about those long robes worn by Arabs. I was working in Morocco several decades ago. My first morning, it was still black dark, and the guy driving the car was straddling the the middle line on the road. I asked him why, he said you’ll see. Shortly after there was a guy riding a donkey down the road, he had on a dark brown robe and the donkey was the same color. We were on him before we could see him. Good thing we were in the middle.

[Steve Ashton]

I was watching one of the many youtube videos by one of the well known facebook great kilt advocates.

He kept on saying how historically correct his method of pleating was - all the time using a single width, 9 yard length, of 13oz modern fabric.

He was also going on and on about how practical the garment was. While laying out 9 yards x 30 inches of fabric on the grass, hand pleating it, laying down and wrapping it around himself.
He also seemed quite proud of how this garment would keep him warm in the field and how he could wrap himself up at night to sleep.

The video was over 20 min long. All that I could think, all that was going through my mind was - Would not a blanket make much more sense for warmth in the field and wrapping up in for sleeping? Heavy woven wool blankets have been around almost as long as weaving. Boiled wool which is very durable and warm, and double-weave which produces double-width fabric on a single-width loom have been around almost as long.

And what does everyone need to do first thing after waking? Do you want to spend 20 min pleating up a length of fabric - or would you just rather shake out your blanket, toss it over you shoulders and go to the latrine?

To my mind it is not a big leap to go from this - Which is an Irish Brat -



To this - which is called a matchcoat -



From this - A classic Hudson's Bay Point Blanket of boiled wool, woven double-weave, which dates back to the 1770's -


To this - Apache woven blanket in patterns as complex and distinctive as Tartan.



And that there are still places in the world where a blanket draped over the shoulders is the primary piece of clothing.



This is, by-the-way, modern Lesotho where this style of woolen, patterned blanket has been the national dress since the 1870's when, the first King of Lesotho, King Moshoeshoe (mo-shway-shway) requested "Special Blankets" from Scottish weaver Donald Fraser. The blankets in one of the first shipments had a flaw. A white stripe running the length of the cloth. This distinctive stripe in white or black is reproduced in Lesotho blankets today.
These blankets, if of a specific pattern, and worn belted or tied at the waist often denote a male or female who has passed through the initiation rites for adulthood.

[neloon]

Bishop Leslie, reporting to Rome in 1578, says that Highlanders wore "foemoralia simplicissima, pudori quam frigori aut pompae aptiora" = "very simple shorts, for decency rather than against the cold or for ostentation". At about the same time, Lucas de Heere painted what seems to be a very accurate picture of a "Savage Scotsman" - possibly a mercenary in one of the many European wars. (Scroll down).
https://www.englandcast.com/2019/08/...ucas-de-heere/
So, at that point, the feileadh was still hanging off the shoulders but it's not difficult to see that belting it around the waist would be much more convenient.

Alan

[Touchstone]

What I have a problem with is what some call the "Great Kilt" with perfect pleating.

Do you think the pleating - not perfect pleating, just simple folding - is a natural consequence of having a big bunch of fabric strapped to the back of the waist? "I think I'll fold this up a bit to keep it from bothering my back." That would only take a minute (and could be postponed until after the visit to the latrine). The perfect pleating would come as people started treating it as a fashion garment in addition to practical uses.

[OC Richard]

All these "mantles" (untailored pieces of fabric) worn wrapped around the body in many cultures don't address the question raised in the OP, which is when and why Highland Scots began belting their mantles around their waist.

And I should point out that the brat as it was made in pre-Invasion Ireland was not an untailored piece of fabric, but a rather complex garment.

It's somewhat like the question of why, seemingly out of nowhere, Ghillie Brogues appear in the mid-19th century as a fairly popular Highland shoe.

There's a centuries-earlier account of Highlanders lacing bits of deer hide around their feet, and many (including myself) point out the similar pamputai of the Aran Islanders and opanki of the Balkans and so forth.

As interesting as these things are, they don't explain how 19th century Ghillie Brogues came to be.

To know that we would have to have iconography showing an unbroken chain of development from Victorian times back to Elizabethan imagry showing Highlanders wearing those deer-hide things. But there isn't.

Likewise with the Highland belted plaid we would need a series of images going back through the centuries showing an unbroken chain of development linking it to ancient Irish costume. AFAIK this doesn't exist. I have the excellent Old Irish and Highland Dress and the author is as exhaustive as anyone could be, and no such evidence is seen. I know the state of archaeology has tremendously advanced since 1950 but I've not seen anything which adds to the subject at hand.

My historian nature prevents me from indulging in unfounded speculation, but rather forces me to look at the evidence and say "this is what we know, beyond that we just don't know".