Genuine kilties in the movies

[Troglodyte]

Not only are the Brigadoon costumes no worse than Outlander's, I would say that the Outlander costumes are an even greater distortion of mid-18th century Highland Dress than Brigadoon's.

At least in Brigadoon you have the panoply of colourful tartans which was so characteristic of mid-to-late 18th century Highland outfits.

The kilted men are wearing proper kilt hose and plausible shoes.

In Outlander everyone is in dull brown and grey tartans and jackets, and wearing knee-high riding boots, for which there is no evidence whatever.

Yes there are anachronisms in Brigadoon such as Victorian sword belts, plaid brooches, sporrans, Glengarries, and Kilmarnock bonnets. Though from a later period, these things are all actual items of Highland Dress.

On the other hand the huge floppy Rastafarian bag-hats in Outlander weren't part of Highland Dress of any period.

The one thing that Outlander gets a bit more correct are the shirts. Brigadoon has the Highlanders wearing the pirate shirts so loved by mid-20th century Hollywood (and these in wild colours) which never existed at any time or place whatever.

Another thing besides the costumes is the hair: in the mid-18th century, as it was in the mid-20th, men were generally clean-shaven.

The real Culloden and the Outlander Culloden.

You're dead right about the colours - or lack of them.

Where did this fashion for dull greys and browns come from, I wonder. It's all a bit too muddy for my taste.

The 1948 Bonnie Prince Charlie film with David Niven in the title role, is another fantasy romp - but at least there is the sort of tartan and colour mix that the 1746 Morier painting shows. Many of the kilted extras could be wearing their own kit, and the obviously modern style detracts slightly from the sense of authenticity.

Michael Caine in the 1971 Kidnapped is all tartaned-up, and more like Morier's men, and his accent is as fun as Dick Van Dyke's Cockney in Mary Poppins. It's several decades since I saw the film, but I remember the battle scenes and those with tartaned Highlanders gave the right impression at the time.

But hey, it's only make-believe play-acting, so what the hell..? Only people like us ever notice such things.

[OC Richard]

You're dead right about the colours - or lack of them.

Where did this fashion for dull greys and browns come from, I wonder.

I think the culprit was DC Dalgliesh.

Here it is in his own words:





The tartans Dalgliesh introduced in the late 1940s, which they called "reproduction" colours, had these substitutions

Green > brown
Blue > grey
Black > (unchanged)
Scarlet > dull claret-red

At some point this entire colour-scheme was adopted by Lochcarron, who re-named it "weathered" colours.

Though not using reproduction/weathered tartans, and not depicting "ancient" Highlanders, chronologically the next appearance of brown tartans was probably Tunes of Glory (1960).

It was a strange choice due to none of the Scottish Highland regiments wearing a tartan remotely like that.



As for Hollywood using the reproduction/weathered colour scheme for "ancient" Highlanders, it might have started with Rob Roy (1995, top right).

It continues to this day with the current and hugely popular Outlander (2014-present, bottom right).

Here are Hollywood "ancient Highlanders" compared to actual old portraits.

BTW it's my theory that the costume designer saw some old images of Highlanders with belted plaids, and other images showing small kilts with long plaids wrapped around the body, and not realising that these were two distinct forms of dress, conflated the two, creating the bizarre thing Liam Neeson can be seen wearing.

As we see in Outlander, Hollywood costumers insist on a strip of tartan going diagonally across the chest even when a belted plaid is clearly intended.