Highland dress

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King Edward VII in a tweed Argyll jacket, kilt and Glengarry bonnet (1904) EdwardVIIby LordRedesdalesm.jpg
King Edward VII in a tweed Argyll jacket, kilt and Glengarry bonnet (1904)

Highland dress is the traditional, regional dress of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland. It is often characterised by tartan (plaid in North America). Specific designs of shirt, jacket, bodice and headwear may also be worn along with clan badges and other devices indicating family and heritage.

Contents

Men's Highland dress typically includes a kilt or trews of his clan tartan, along with either a tartan full plaid, fly plaid, or short belted plaid. There are a number of accessories, which may include but are not limited to: a belt, sporran, sgian-dubh, knee-socks with a cuff known as kilt hose, garters, kilt pins and clan badges.

Women's Highland dress is also based on the clan tartan, either that of her birth clan or, if married, that of her spouse's clan if she so chooses. Traditionally, women and girls do not wear kilts but may wear ankle-length tartan skirts, along with a colour-coordinated blouse and vest. A tartan earasaid, sash or tonnag (smaller shawl) may also be worn, usually pinned with a brooch, sometimes with a clan badge or other family or cultural motif.

Modern Highland dress

In the modern era, Scottish Highland dress can be worn casually, or worn as formal wear to white tie and black tie occasions, especially at ceilidhs and weddings. Just as the black tie dress code has increased in use in England for formal events which historically may have called for white tie, so too is the black tie version of Highland dress increasingly common.

The codification of "proper" Highland dress for formal and semi-formal wear took place during the Victorian era, and these styles have changed little since then (e.g. the Prince Charlie, Sheriffmuir, and regulation jackets have an antique appearance, being based on Victorian military doublets of Highland regiments). In observing "constraints imposed by supposed rules and regulations governing ... what is perceived as permissible in Highland dress", Scottish historian Hugh Cheape writes (2012) that "uniform styles and conformity in dress conventions have emerged since the late nineteenth century and have been encoded in books and tailors' patterns; strict observance is expected and in some circles has become a touchstone of Scottishness. The perpetuation of such views, relatively recently formed, is a self-assumed role of guardians of Scottish 'ethnicity'." [1] He contrasts this mode of regulated Highland dress with the kilt's contemporary "renaissance as a style item ... even a post-modern trend in kilt-wear instigated with the 1970s and 1980s punk styles; we see the kilt worn with chunky socks, boots, white T-shirt and black jacket". [2]

Regardless of formality level, the basis of all modern men's and women's Highland dress starts with the tartan, either as a kilt, trews, arisaid, sash, or tonnag. Tartans in Scotland are registered at the Scottish Register of Tartans in Edinburgh, a non-ministerial department and are usually aligned to a clan or branch of a clan; however, tartans can also be registered exclusively for an individual or institution, and many "district" or "national" patterns also exist that have no associations to particular families or organisations.

Historically, weaponry formed a common accessory of men's Highland dress, such as the mattucashlass and the dirk. However, due to the UK's knife laws, small sgian-dubhs and sword shape kilt pins are more commonly seen today. [3]

For men's and women's shoes, dance ghillies are thin, foldable turnshoes, now used mostly for indoor wear and Scottish dancing. The sole and uppers cut from one piece of leather, wrapped around the foot from the bottom, laced at the top, and seamed at the heel and toe. Ghillie brogues are thick-soled welted-rand shoes. In both, the laces are wrapped around and tied firmly above the wearer's ankles so that the shoes do not get pulled off in the mud. The shoes lack tongues so the wearer's feet can dry more quickly in the typically damp Scottish weather.

Formal day wear (morning dress)

James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife, in a plain-cuff Crail jacket (1984) 3rd Duke of Fife in Kilt. Allan Warren.jpg
James Carnegie, 3rd Duke of Fife, in a plain-cuff Crail jacket (1984)

Highland dress may also be worn as a folk-costume option at events requiring morning dress. As such, for formal day-wear use it generally consists of: [4] [5]

Men:

Formal evening wear (white tie)

The traditional white-tie version of Highland dress consists of:

Men:

Semi-formal day wear (black lounge suit equivalent)

The semi-formal version of Highland dress consists of: [4] [5]

Men:

Semi-formal evening wear (black tie)

Black-tie Highland dress with kilt (in Campbell of Argyll tartan) and Prince Charlie jacket (2021) Prince Charlie jacket (2021).jpg
Black-tie Highland dress with kilt (in Campbell of Argyll tartan) and Prince Charlie jacket (2021)

Traditionally, black-tie Highland dress comprises:

Men:

Historical descriptions

Highlanders wearing kilts, plaids, bonnets, and an early example of trews; 1631 German engraving. Scottish mercenaries in the Thirty Years War.jpg
Highlanders wearing kilts, plaids, bonnets, and an early example of trews; 1631 German engraving.
The Highland Wedding, David Allan (1780) Allan-highlandwedding1780.jpg
The Highland Wedding, David Allan (1780)

In 1618, a poet from London, John Taylor, described the costume of Scottish aristocrats, lairds, and their followers and servants, dressed for hunting at Braemar. In August and September, all classes dressed in the same fashion by custom, as if equals. This included tartan stockings and jerkins, with garters of twisted straw, and a finer plaid mantle round their shoulders. They had knotted handkerchiefs at their necks and wore blue caps. Taylor said the tartan was "warm stuff of diverse colours." [9]

Near the end of the seventeenth century, Martin Martin gave a description of traditional women's clothing in the Western Islands, the earasaid with its brooches and buckles.

"The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by some of the vulgar, called arisad, is a white plaid, having a few small stripes of black, blue and red; it reached from the neck to the heels, and was tied before on the breast with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred marks value; it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraven with various animals etc. There was a lesser buckle which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all around with several finer stones of a lesser size. The plaid being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red coral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait (tight) about the head, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands." [10]

According to the English military chaplain Thomas Morer in 1689, Highland men wore plaids about seven or eight yards (6.4 to 7.3 m) long, which covered from the neck to the knees except the right arm. Beneath the plaid they wore a waistcoat or a shirt to the same length as the drape of the plaid. These were "belted plaids." Their stockings were made of the same stuff as the plaid and their shoes were called "brocks" (brogues). Bonnets were blue or "sad" coloured. Morer noted that the fineness of the fabric varied according to the wealth and status of the man.

Scottish Lowlanders and Borderers were dressed much like the English, except both men and women also used a plaid as a cloak. The Lowland women wrapped their plaids over their heads as hoods, [11] whereas Lowland and Border men wore a checkered maud (plaid) wrapped about their upper body. [12] The maud, woven in a pattern known variously as Border tartan, Falkirk tartan, Shepherd's check, Shepherd's plaid [13] and Galashiels grey, became the identifying feature of Border dress as a result of the garment's mention by fashionable Border Scots such as Walter Scott, James Hogg and Henry Scott Riddell and their wearing of it in public. [14] Together with Robert Burns, they can be seen wearing a maud in portraits, etchings and statues.

Notes

  1. From top to bottom these are called, feather bonnet, doublet, plaid and plaid brooch, belt, sporran, kilt, hose tops, spats, brogues

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kilt</span> Skirt-like garment worn with Scottish Highland dress and sometimes more broadly

A kilt is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak. The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt. Since the 19th century, it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland, and more broadly with Gaelic or Celtic heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sgian-dubh</span> Ceremonial knife

The sgian-dubh – also anglicized as skene-dhu – is a small, single-edged knife worn as part of traditional Scottish Highland dress. Originally used for eating and preparing fruit, meat, and cutting bread and cheese, as well as serving for other more general day-to-day uses such as cutting material and protection, it is now worn as part of traditional Scottish dress tucked into the top of the kilt hose with only the upper portion of the hilt visible. The sgian-dubh is normally worn on the same side as the dominant hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sporran</span> Belt pouch traditionally worn with mens Scottish Highland dress

The sporran, a traditional part of male Scottish Highland dress, is a pouch that functions as a pocket for the kilt. Made of leather or fur, the ornamentation of the sporran is chosen to complement the formality of dress worn with it. The sporran is worn on a leather strap or chain, conventionally positioned in front of the groin of the wearer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mess dress uniform</span> Formal evening dress worn by military personnel

Mess dress uniform is the most formal type of evening-wear uniform used by military personnel, police personnel, and other uniformed services members. It frequently consists of a mess jacket, trousers, white dress shirt and a black bow tie, along with orders and medals insignia. Design may depend on regiment or service branch, e.g. army, navy, air force, marines, etc. In modern Western dress codes, mess dress uniform is the supplementary alternative equivalent to the civilian black tie for evening wear. Mess dress uniforms are typically less formal than full dress uniform, but more formal than service dress uniform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland dance</span> Competitive style of national dancing of Scotland

Highland dance or Highland dancing is a style of competitive dancing developed in the Scottish Highlands in the 19th and 20th centuries, in the context of competitions at public events such as the Highland games. It was created from the Gaelic folk dance repertoire, but formalised with the conventions of ballet, and has been subject to influences from outside the Highlands. Highland dancing is often performed with the accompaniment of Highland bagpipe music, and dancers wear specialised shoes called ghillies or pumps. It is now seen at nearly every modern-day Highland games event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belted plaid</span> Large piece of fabric wrapped around the body, loosely gathered and belted at the waist

The belted plaid is a large blanket-like piece of fabric which is wrapped around the body with the material pleated or, more accurately, loosely gathered and secured at the waist by means of a belt. Typically, a portion of the belted plaid hangs down to about the knees or ankles with the rest of the material being wrapped up around the upper body in a variety of ways and pinned or otherwise secured to keep it in place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboyne dress</span>

'Aboyne dress' is the name given to the prescribed attire for female dancers in the Scottish national dances, such as the Flora MacDonald's fancy, the Scottish lilt, and others. Male dancers wear the kilt for these dances, the kilt being a predominantly male garment. There are two versions of Aboyne Dress in use. Some consider the Aboyne as quite suited to the graceful movements of the national dances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trews</span> Traditional Celtic tightly-fit footed trousers

Trews are men's clothing for the legs and lower abdomen, a traditional form of tartan trousers from Scottish Highland dress. Trews could be trimmed with leather, usually buckskin, especially on the inner leg to prevent wear from riding on a horse.

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Court uniform and dress were required to be worn by those in attendance at the royal court in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kilt accessories</span>

The modern, tailored kilt which is ubiquitous at Highland games gatherings around the world has associated with it an evolving style of wear. This style includes the accessories and other accoutrements which are typically worn with it. In this sense, it is very much like other items of the fashion world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the kilt</span>

The history of the modern kilt stretches back to at least the end of the 16th century. The kilt first appeared as the belted plaid or great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak draped over the shoulder, or brought up over the head as a hood. The small kilt or walking kilt did not develop until the late 17th or early 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Full plaid</span> Scottish Highland dress

A full plaid, or just a plaid, is a long piece of tartan fabric, most often worn as part of a Highland dress. It usually matches the tartan of the kilt. A modern full plaid is pleated the whole way, with half of its length sewn shut. Its length is about twice the distance from the ground to the wearer's shoulder.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jabot (neckwear)</span> Decorative clothing accessory

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doublet (Highland dress)</span>

Doublet is the term describing any of several types of jacket worn with Scottish highland dress; referring to both uniform and evening jackets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prince Charlie jacket</span>

The Prince Charlie jacket is a formal black-tie jacket for Highland dress that was initially listed in tailor catalogs of the early 1920s as a coatee. Over the next couple of decades it became called a Prince Charlie (PC). When introduced, it was marketed as an alternative to the regulation doublet and was to be worn with a black or white bow tie, else white lace jabot, as well as a tartan or red waistcoat (vest). Today the waistcoat is usually made of the same material as the coat. It is a formal evening jacket and not suitable to be worn for day dress with a long tie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argyll jacket</span>

The Argyll Highland jacket is a shorter than regular jacket with gauntlet cuffs and pocket flaps and front cutaway for wearing with a sporran and kilt. It can be of tweed, tartan or solid colour material. The Argyll is the standard day wear jacket.

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References

  1. Cheape, Hugh (2012). "Gheibhte Breacain Charnaid ('Scarlet Tartans Would Be Got ...'): The Re-invention of Tradition". In Brown, Ian (ed.). From Tartan to Tartanry: Scottish Culture, History and Myth. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN   978-0-7486-6464-1.
  2. Cheape (2012), p. 14.
  3. "Sgian Dubhs". TartansAuthority.com. Scottish Tartans Authority. Archived from the original on 10 October 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 "So that's how to wear your kilt". The Scotsman . 17 May 2004.
  5. 1 2 "What to Wear?". Scottish Tartans Authority. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  6. Collins English Dictionary 21st Century Edition Harper Collins (2001) ISBN   0-00-472529-8
  7. "David Lumsden of Cushnie". Telegraph.co.uk . The Daily Telegraph. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  8. MacKinnon, C. R. (1970). Scottish Tartans & Highland Dress. Glasgow / London: Wm. Collins Sons & Co. p. 98. ISBN   0-00-411114-1.
  9. Taylor, John, Early Prose & Poetical Works, London & Glasgow, (1888), pp.49-50.
  10. Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, (1703), pp.208-209: quoted in Robertson, ed., Inventaires de la Royne Desscosse, Bannatyne Club, (1863) p.lxviii footnote.
  11. Hume Brown, P., Early Travellers in Scotland James Thin (1891 repr. 1978), 269-270, 272, quoting Morer, Thomas, A Short Account of Scotland (1715)
  12. Craig, A. (1837). Parish of Bedrule. New Statistical Account of Scotland (vol. 3). Edinburgh: Blackwood.
  13. The Scottish Register of Tartans.
  14. Moffat, A. (2015). Scotland: A history from the earliest times. Edinburgh: Birlinn.