Forgive me for missing any abstruse historical points which, although perhaps interesting to those of an historical bent, have absolutely nothing to do with Scottish dress as it is worn today. None of it significantly pre-dates the late 18th century and what we see today is mostly a later creation, encouraged greatly by the influence of “Balmorality” where the influence of Victoria and Albert led to the aristocratic and moneyed classes enthusiastically embracing everything Scottish. They bought large tracts of Scottish land, built extravagant castles and spent the season there trying to wipe out the local wildlife and the evenings dressing up in every possible tartan outfit imaginable.
The passage of time has mellowed these excesses to a large degree to the extent that we can now define highland dress much as we now see it as in the earlier post with a kilt, doublet of some design, jabot, coloured hose and ghillie or buckle brogues.
There are, of course, variations on this but this is essentially highland dress as a distinctive form of dress in Scotland.