Quote Originally Posted by thescot View Post
Brian, it appears in the later costume that you are wearing a modern style kilt as opposed to the great kilt in the earlier style. Is that in fact the case. Is it likely that the Scots of the '45 were wearing a sewn kilt?
It's a loosely box-pleated kilt with the pleats tacked into place at the top:



We know that philabegs were being widely worn at the time of the `45. They are mentioned in the Proscription, and appear in period images:





What we don't know is the exact manner of the kilt's construction at the time. Was it hand-pleated and belted every time like a full-sized plaid? Was there a drawstring (also postulated for the big plaid)? Were the pleats sewn into place? No kilts survive from that period, or from the following 5 decades. Utilitarian garments like that were usually worn until they were falling apart, or the fabric used for something else.
The earliest surviving kilts are military examples from 1790s and have stitched in box-pleats. When did that practice begin? No one knows....