"Brigadoonery"? "TCHD"? Who decides?

[Orionson]

Sheep Washing in Glen Lyon (1859) by Richard Ansdell has always been one of my most favourite paintings. The men pictured are not wearing pirate/pseudo ghillie shirts, but the shirts they are wearing are homespun garments with what one might refer to as a blousan sleeve. I have a few collar-less shirts like this, with three plain wooden buttons at the neck, some in linen and one in flannel. They are very plain and very comfortable. I do wear them occasionally for chores like splitting logs and working in the garden. Sometimes with, sometimes without a waistcoat, depending upon the weather. They are very comfortable. But because of the Brigadoon factor, I would not wear them to the Highland Games.

I know, no pics-no story, but I'm not in the habit of posing for pics whilst splitting logs - even though my girlfriend is of the opinion that chores are more of a spectator sport when I am so attired.

[Theyoungkiltman]

As a fan of the picture "Gunga din" I like the look of a pith helmet with a kilt, and have been wanting to get one for a while. I really don't like the "jacobite" shirts but I would wear one if I had one.

[BadenochWolf]

Even though civilian kilts don't have that military rise, the two straps carried over to civilian dress.

I'm now inordinately concerned that I am wearing my only kilt wrong. It's a USAkilts traditional 8-yarder. I've been wearing it such that the waistband overlaps my lowest ribs (about 2 inches above my belly button), and the apron ends just above the tops of my kneecaps. If I wear it lower it feels wrongly sized, but perhaps I measured wrong in the first place.

On a personal note, I was not aware till @Nathan pointed it out that you were the gentlelaird wearing the safari shirt and pith helmet in the TCHD guide. I did not mean any slight by calling it an affectation. Please forgive me if it seemed so, you wear them very well. I'm sometimes less handy with our language than one ought to be.

[CMcG]

...

On a personal note, I was not aware till @Nathan pointed it out that you were the gentlelaird wearing the safari shirt and pith helmet in the TCHD guide. I did not mean any slight by calling it an affectation. Please forgive me if it seemed so, you wear them very well. I'm sometimes less handy with our language than one ought to be.

I believe it is actually Tobus wearing the pith helmet in the blazing Texas sun near the end of our THCD guide, although Panache deserves credit for being the Xmarks pioneer of that style ith:

[CMcG]

You just cut to the heart of the issue for me: the pith helmet was a part of a military uniform in previous generations, but not civilian dress. Why is one ahistorical affectation bad and the other not?

Neither are "bad," but they signify different things. It depends on what sort of look you're going for.

Pith helmets are worn by a few Xmarkers who are taking a cue from certain kilted regiments that fought in hot climates. They claim that this type of head wear is practical for the blazing sun, which gives them a sort of dispensation under THCD. I don't think, however, that pith helmets are widespread outside of Xmarks and should thus be considered idiosyncratic, personal flair, and/or practical adaptation to the weather.

Those puffy, pseudo-Jacobite shirts, on the other hand, are derived from a Hollywood or romance novel approaches that are decidedly costumey, which is how they get labelled as brigadoonery. If you like them, then go ahead and wear one, especially if you're going to a Renn Fair! Traditional, however, they are not.

[Panache]

For those with an interest in pith helmets and sun helmets here is an excellent website

http://www.militarysunhelmets.com

It is run by Stuart Bates and Peter Suciu who together wrote both The Wolseley Helmet In Pictures from Omdurman to El Alamein and Military Sun Helmets of the world

While their focus is on military pith and sun helmets, this post (link below), was interesting as it shows an advertisement for helmets for the entire family and the article itself notes the line between military and civilian helmets gets fuzzy

http://www.militarysunhelmets.com/20...r-british-maid

Cheers ith:

Jamie