Slightly confused.

[bricelythgoe]

My piping instructor is my cousin, who happens to be a girl. Not uncommon at all.

[Bigkahuna]

Ya gotta love a woman with a knife in her sock!!!

[EagleJCS]

My piping instructor, a female, wears a kilt - fitted for her - as a soloist. She wears a lace jabot and lace cuffs instead of a tie, and usually an Argyle style jacket.

When playing with the band, she's in band uniform: kilt, sporran, waistcoat, dress shirt, tie, etc. No lace to be seen.

So, in answer to the OP, no, it's not unusual for a female piper to wear a kilt. Sometimes a band will order kilts cut specifically for their female members (a little wider in the hips or a little shorter in the fell so that the pleats fall straight).

[Nighthawk]

It seems odd to my eyes- the clothes don't look right on the wearer. There is a pipe band in Denver that leaves the uniform open for it's women- they dress in much more feminine attire, for the most part, and I personally like it. I can't remember which band it is, though...

[OC Richard]

The "man in the middle" is Evan MacRae.

He was Pipe Major of the Cameron Highlanders for many years.

This photo was taken shortly after his retirement from the Army. He was head instructor at the piping school at Coeur d'Alene. That jacket isn't any sort of military style, just an interesting civilian jacket.

PM Evan MacRae's image has been imortalised on countless postcards, tea towels, rugs, etc etc due to a photo taken of him in Full Dress back in the 1950's which has been endlessly reproduced. I can go on Ebay any hour of any day and find dozens of items with that MacRae photo on them.

The instructors pictured are Sue Arbuthnot, Dan Deisner, PM Evan MacRae, Judy Morrison, Rene Cusson, and Ian MacCrimmon. (I apologise for any misspellings in these names- 1980 was a long time ago!)
Colin Gemmel was also teaching that year but for some reason he didn't pose for that photo.

[Garry Oak]

Full disclosure w/r/t my personal background: I spent years in marching bands, so that might affect my response. My take on it = soloists and indoor players, do as you prefer, including women pipers wearing kilts and neckties. For a band that's 'in the field' rather than in a concert hall, it seems very appropriate to me to wear uniforms that are uniform. It looks good; I like it.

[OC Richard]

There is a pipe band in Denver that leaves the uniform open for it's women...

That's odd... the very word "uniform" means "one form" so it's really an oxymoron to leave the uniform open. I guess a band like that couldn't really be said to possess a "uniform".

By the way PM Evan MacRae won the Gold Medal at Oban that same summer, a few weeks after that photo was taken. I believe he was the oldest person to win the Gold.

Here's another photo of PM MacRae taken at that same piping school. I don't remember the name of the other guy. That guy lived in Spokane at the time as I recall, but had lived in the Los Angeles area back in the 1940's and was the piper in those old Shirley Temple movies etc, if I remember correctly.



Here's the often-reproduced photo of PM Evan MacRae as PM of the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. It must have been taken in the period from around the end of WWII up to 1960 due to the fact that the QOCH switched from Cameron of Erracht kilts to Royal Stuart kilts in the immediate postwar period, and the QOCH was amalgamated with the Seaforth Highlanders to form the Queens Own Highlanders around 1960. By the way, the Pipe Major of the Cameron Highlanders was required by tradition to wear a full beard, the only beard in the Scottish regiments save for pioneers. The photo shows another interesting facet of the Cameron uniform: it was the only Highland regiment in which the pipers wore full hose with buckled brogues (instead of spats) for most orders of dress.



And here's another photo of a "ladies pipe band".

[Chas]

Thanks OC. I knew I only had to ask about the cuffs and a reply would be forthcoming. I am really taken with his jacket, it is certainly the only double-breasted kilt jacket that I have seen. I am trying to remodel a tweed jacket to use as a kilt jacket. If it works then maybe a double-breasted version could be on the cards.

Thanks again.

regards

Chas

[OC Richard]

Certainly it's a very interesting jacket and now that you mention it, yes, it's the only double-breasted Highland jacket I can recall.

Note the interesting twisted silver/black shoulder cords.

[Tartan Shortbread Jock]

Girl pipers are cool.