Show us your Vintage Kilt Photos

[BoldHighlander]

Photo caption:
The beautiful sepia tones and sort of pearly finish might be clues that it was taken in India. Another dead giveaway might be the leopard skin on which the soldier is standing, which seems to have been a di rigour prop for many of the photograph studios in India at the time. (This is not a hard and fast rule, however, as photographs from other studios in other places do turn up with leopard skins.)

The back of the photograph is bereft of any message or identification of the young Scottish soldier. The only things that can be identified with any certainty are his cap badge and collar badges, which when viewed in a closeup reveal that he is a member of the Gordon Highlanders, a Scottish regiment with a long and noble history going back over two centuries.

The style of cap the soldier is wearing is called a Glengarry, and it has ribbons hanging down in the back which are not visible in the photograph. Although he is not wearing a sporran, he wears a cutaway tunic, which was designed so that a sporran could be worn and not covered up by the tunic. Since the traditional kilt does not have pockets, the sporran serves as a wallet and container for any other necessary personal items. He carries a bamboo swagger stick loosely in his hands.

Standing on an Oriental rug in front of a beautifully painted backdrop with his hand resting casually on a carved, diamond-tufted side chair, he presents quite the elegant picture - a far cry from the interior of the usual military barracks in British India.



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