So what did they call this jacket?

[OC Richard]

In gathering a fairly large collection of old photos of pipers and others in Highland dress, two things popped out to my eye:

1) the dress of pipers remained remarkably stable from the 1860's up through the 1920's.

2) most were wearing the same style of jacket.

3) this jacket style was not in the Pantheon of jackets received from the 1970's when I started playing (Montrose, Regulation, etc etc).

So, I've been wondering what this style of jacket was called.

Here's the first image I can find of it, a piper in 1865, followed by a number of other images of it:











And here's the Highland dress page from a vintage Henderson catalogue.



Note that it mentions "Celtic jacket with vest" and "doublet with vest".

Since this catalogue is from a pipermaker, and must have been from the period when the jacket style under discussion was nearly universal for pipers, one of these two, "celtic" or "doublet", must have been that style... but which one?

(Military-style pipe band doublets are listed on another page.)

By the way the Paisleys catalogue from 1940 continues to show this style (but only for boys, and girl Highland dancers??)



(By the way, my photos have been called into question as representing Highland dress as a whole as my photos are mostly of pipers. I collected photos of pipers because I play the pipes. I can assure you that for every vintage photo of a piper I passed up 20 or 30 photos of men dressed exactly the same way, the only difference being the "shells" appearing at the shoulders of some of the pipers' jackets.)

[MacLowlife]

Don't you think it could be called a variant regulation doublet? It has flaps, it has lapels, it has gauntlet cuffs, it doesn't seem to button ( though some of your pictures show one that does.) I seem to recall this topic coming up recently ( with some of the same photos) and there was no real agreement, but the suggestion was that this is a regulation- with shells and contrasting piping in some cases...

Of course, the lapels on the current version of the regulation do not look quite the same and the non-buttoning aspect is more obvious.

You could just as easily say that it is a variant of the Balmoral, only with gauntlet cuffs and a waistcoat. And worn unbuttoned...

The little boy's jacket comes dangerously close to being a Sheriffmuir with lapels.

I tried to set out the various choices for doublets in a thread one time and to put names to the usual combinations ( single/ double breasted; flaps/ no flaps; collar/lapel; cuffs, etc.) but the difficulty becomes just what you started with- a lack of a universal naming system. Many of the names started out as proprietary brands and some of them directly contradict each other.

I believe the name Balmoral is a recent innovation, specifically referring to a jacket worn by HRH the Duke of Rothesay (Prince Charles) and commercially exploited only since, but probably made for years before.

Some people are willing to ignore slight changes caused by fashion- others think too many changes make a new model with a new name.

I expect that is my thousand words.

[Bigkahuna]

Looks like a cross between Patrol Dress and Mess Dress Tunics and the full dress Bandsmans Tunic.

[OC Richard]

Thanks for the info and photos!

Yes none of the modern Pantheon of Highland jackets quite matches.

All of the modern Evening doublets I've seen that have the Inverness tashes and Argyll/gauntlet cuffs either have Prince Charlie style lapels or a high standing military style collar.

The jacket I'm wondering about has a collar like an ordinary suit coat of that period (late 19th and early 20th century). It is worn with a waistcoat. Like ordinary suit coats of that time, it's often worn with only the top button buttoned, but at other times with several or all buttons buttoned.

Here's an example with a collar/lapels more like the "Regulation doublet".



Anyhow the style under discussion couldn't have been called Montrose or Regulation or whatever because these terms weren't used then, as far as I can see.

[Jock Scot]

I think we need to remember that "off the peg" jackets with a standardized description name for a particular style is a modern idea. In those days, bespoke jackets were the norm,or an adaptation of a second hand jacket that came into the hands of the piper's family. In those days,don't forget, every home would have a more than average seamstress on hand as a matter of necessity,so an individual styled jacket was almost inevitable.

[slohairt]

I think we need to remember that "off the peg" jackets with a standardized description name for a particular style is a modern idea. In those days, bespoke jackets were the norm,or an adaptation of a second hand jacket that came into the hands of the piper's family. In those days,don't forget, every home would have a more than average seamstress on hand as a matter of necessity,so an individual styled jacket was almost inevitable.

Very true, Jock. Even in fairly recent times there was still a lot of variation within one jacket 'style'. I have a Regulation Doublet that is 41 years old and, while the basic construction is similar, it is very different from the Regulation Doublets I sell in my business. It was a bespoke item made for an individual by a (now-defunct) tailoring firm in Toronto. The faded tag on the inside pocket still has all of his pertinent information. It's an interesting doublet, as I don't know which of the features were typical of the tailor's products or if they were just personal preferences on the part of the original owner.

[HarborSpringsPiper]

Very true, Jock. Even in fairly recent times there was still a lot of variation within one jacket 'style'. I have a Regulation Doublet that is 41 years old and, while the basic construction is similar, it is very different from the Regulation Doublets I sell in my business. It was a bespoke item made for an individual by a (now-defunct) tailoring firm in Toronto. The faded tag on the inside pocket still has all of his pertinent information. It's an interesting doublet, as I don't know which of the features were typical of the tailor's products or if they were just personal preferences on the part of the original owner.

If you had a chance to post a pic of it, I for one would be interested in seeing it. The pictures of the RegDoubs I see offered on the internet look more like it has evolved into a PC with Inverness flaps/taches tacked on the front, though they do have the Argyll cuff. I might feel differently if I saw one close-up, but that is what the pics convey to me. Older varieties I have seen looked much more distinctive.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

One thing that I have noticed is that today's Regulation doublets do not button in front, or else they are held closed with two small buttons attached by a short link, the diagonal rows of three buttons on either side (as found on the Prince Charlie) seem to have replaced the three functioning buttons that used to be in the front of the Regulation doublet in examples back to the 1950's and earlier.

I don't believe the buttons on regulation doublets are intended to actually button, despite the presence of button holes on the opposite side of the jacket. Looking at a number of photos and illustrations from the period 1900-present day, I can't find a single example of the jacket closing. Just as a tails coat is intended to be worn open, so it seems that the dress Argyll, the Regulation Doublet, and the Prince Charlie coatee are also intended to be worn open.

[Bugbear]

In those days, bespoke jackets were the norm,or an adaptation of a second hand jacket that came into the hands of the piper's family. ...

Ah Ha! That sounds like something that goes on on the forum quite a lot.

[OC Richard]

I think we need to remember that "off the peg" jackets with a standardized description name for a particular style is a modern idea. In those days, bespoke jackets were the norm,or an adaptation of a second hand jacket that came into the hands of the piper's family. In those days,don't forget, every home would have a more than average seamstress on hand as a matter of necessity,so an individual styled jacket was almost inevitable.

Nevertheless, I above gave a photo of a catalogue of the same period from which many of my photos come which have off the peg jackets in four styles.

I have dozens of photos of this same style. It was obviously quite commonly available, in fact nearly universal, a situation quite the reverse of the bespoke/individually styled/home-sewn one you mention.