My theory is that Hollywood costume people, in doing their research looked at a number of 18th century portraits and didn't understand that they were seeing two different modes of Highland Dress.
Here are the two main modes of 18th century Highland Dress, and the additional confusion created in the minds of Hollywood costume designers seeing a third mode of dress in 19th century portraits.
They saw kilts, and they saw tartan wrapping around the torso, and conflated these things to create something that never existed: a kilt with a piece of tartan, somehow attached, that went diagonally across the chest.
This goofy-looking hybrid seems to go back into the 1950s if not earlier, and has been endlessly perpetuated in Rob Roy, Braveheart, and Outlander.
Here's the Hollywood image of Highlanders over the years:
Last edited by OC Richard; 6th May 26 at 10:17 AM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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