Headwear

[orangehaggis]

Wow, I've missed a lot since I've been away!

The way I see it, kilt-appropriate headgear falls into the categories below:

Smart: Glengarry, Balmoral, Atholl (worn by drummers of the RSDG in No. 1 and No.2 Dress, and by the Drum Major of the P&D of the now defunct KOSB, and currently worn by flute bands throughout Northern Ireland!) and stiffened Kilmarnock bonnets (worn by the Royal Company of Archers). Maybe proper wool slouch hats and pith helmets in warm weather.

Casual: Tams- knitted and fabric, well worn balmorals, slouch hats, Tilleys, boonie hats, straw hats in warm weather. Cowboy hats, baseball caps, etc., as long as the wearer understands that this will CLEARLY mark him (rightly or wrongly) as an American!

Cold weather: a profusely fulled knit tam is good for most of the weather experienced in Ohio, where I live, but I imagine a British/Canadian style muskrat cap with ear flaps (and a clan badge affixed to the front, perhaps?) wouldn't look all bad. A friend of mine in Canada wears a "woolly" cap (stocking cap), but these RARELY look good in any situation.

Specialty headgear: Fezzes for shriners ... ?

Caubeens: The only traditional Irish kilted cap (of Highland Scots invention). The caubeen is the only piece of headgear issued to pipers in the Irish reg'ts of the British army. From shirtsleeve order to No. 1 dress - that's it!

I think I would reserve driving/country flat caps for trousered wear ... I wear one with a tweed sportcoat and moleskin trousers and just don't like the look of it with the kilt. I know many others here disagree with me, but it can't be argued that there are more traditional options for casual wear.

Mark - Ohio

[orangehaggis]

It's my understanding that dicing was added to bunnets to match the hose as well. The black cockade (ribbon) on which the cap badge is placed on most smart bunnets IS a symbol of allegiance to the crown. Whist Jacobites wore a white cockade, Hanoverian soldiers wore black cockades on their hats ... and do to this very day!

Mark - Ohio

[PiobBear]

Caubeens: The only traditional Irish kilted cap (of Highland Scots invention).

Can you document that?

Caubeens are also worn by the pipers of all nine infantry battalions of the Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Irish Defence Forces. The Air Corps pipers wear glengarrys.

[SFCRick]

Love the Horns look Riverkilt

[David Dalglish]

How about a Deerstalker.

[PiobBear]

http://www.iacpb.org/gallery/images/...06%20(241).JPG

The piper second from the right is wearing one with the saffron trim.

Note the sleeve of the fellow in the front rank; the one in a glen. He's a 3 star airman with the Irish Air Corps.
The fellow you refer to in the second rank, the one who's wearing a glen that looks an awfully lot like a caubeen with a saffron band, is wearing the insignia of the Irish 1st Infantry and the Defence Forces School of Music.

[macwilkin]

Note the sleeve of the fellow in the front rank; the one in a glen. He's a 3 star airman with the Irish Air Corps.
The fellow you refer to in the second rank, the one who's wearing a glen that looks an awfully lot like a caubeen with a saffron band, is wearing the insignia of the Irish 1st Infantry and the Defence Forces School of Music.

Yep, and he's wearing a "glengarry", as the IDF refers to it. See the reference to Donal MacCarron's The Irish Defence Forces since 1922 (Osprey: 2004).

"The cap was called for the Irish Army a 'glengarry' -- conusing to the British, for whom the glengarry is a decorated Scottish sidecap, while for the Irish beret is known as a caubeen."

-- MacCarron, pp. 43-44

Regards,

Todd

[PiobBear]

The closest I can get to approximating that type of "glen" in the US is a caubeen. The Irish Army "glens" are essentially indistinguishable from the green caubeens at glengarryhats.com, including the tails worn loose, with the exception of the saffron band & tails. I've seen some pictures of NCO's wearing them with the rosette and hackle centered and pulled down on both sides; unique, but not a look I prefer.
If I referred to mine as a glen among pipers here (99.9% of which wear British MoD style glengarrys), they'd suspect me an idiot.

[macwilkin]

The closest I can get to approximating that type of "glen" in the US is a caubeen. The Irish Army "glens" are essentially indistinguishable from the green caubeens at glengarryhats.com, including the tails worn loose, with the exception of the saffron band & tails. I've seen some pictures of NCO's wearing them with the rosette and hackle centered and pulled down on both sides; unique, but not a look I prefer.

Yep, that's what I said 6 posts back; the Irish "glengarry" is similar to a "caubeen", but not identical. The glen is not a dark (rifle) green in colour either.

I would love to find a source for the Irish "glengarry". It would be a nice addition to the collection.

T.

[SFCRick]

I just take an Army beret and put my clan crest on it