Hair Sporrans

[Bog Trotter]

Are the traditional hair sporrans considered proper to wear with non military dress? I've been informed that the hair sporran is an item worn by pipe bands and military units, and should not be worn with non military kilts. I've seen several people wearing the hair sporran with civilian kilts. My wife likes it and wants me the get one some day. Any imput is greatly appreciated.

[JSFMACLJR]

Hair sporrans--either horse hair or the nicer goat hair-- are certainly acceptable for civilian evening dress. Search around the Forum some and you should find a number of threads that deal with this topic.

[bchunter]

I really want one, and when fortunate enough to obtain one I intend to wear it often.

[D.A. Guertin]

Military only? Rubbish! While the military and pipe bands may be best know for longer haired sporran, they certainly have no exclusive purchase to them. If you find one that rings your bell, by all means go for it! I sincerely enjoy the long haired Angora goat sporrans of the Victorian period, I just don't know that I could pull one off. ;-) You might also look around the Kilt Accessories forum for a recent sporran thread that was simply fit to burst with fine examples.

[D.A. Guertin]

Ah, here we are then...

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...porrans-57824/

[OC Richard]

Are the traditional hair sporrans considered proper to wear with non military dress? I've been informed that the hair sporran is an item worn by pipe bands and military units, and should not be worn with non military kilts.

I've been looking at a load of old photos and collecting old Highland Dress catalogues and as far as I can figure out, in the period around 1900 and the first decades of the 20th century Highland Dress sorted itself out into neat, compartmentalised categories.

Here's some photos from vintage catalogues showing these categories. Note how each mode of dress has its dedicated jacket, sporran, and footwear:









Both this civilian Day Dress and Evening Dress was quite distinct from military uniform. Civilian pipe bands usually dressed in miltary style uniform at that time. Military dress looked, and looks, like this:



But it was not always so!

In the 1860's Queen Victoria commissioned an artist to do a series of extremely detailed and accurate portraits of men in Highland Dress, published as The Highlanders of Scotland. In that book there are 56 kilted figures, and 46 are wearing long hair sporrans! This includes 16 men wearing long hair sporrans with otherwise quite plain Day Dress. No sporrans resembling the Day Dress and Evening Dress sporrans, as seen in the above mid-20th-century Highland Dress catalogues, appear.

In other words, long hair sporrans were the norm with all sorts of Highland Dress, from plain tweed jackets to the "riotous finery" of Victorian evening dress.

Here's what Day Dress looked like in the 1860's



In addition, I have a quite large collection of vintage photographs of civilians in the late Victorian/Edwardian period wearing long hair sporrans.







In the thread "Highlanders discuss Highland attire" (or summat) there were some photos posted of modern-day Highlanders wearing long hair sporrans with civilian Evening Dress, where this photo was posted of young men at the Oban Ball:



I wear a long hair sporran quite often, as can be seen in my avatar.

(By the way I use the term "long hair sporran" because both goat hair and horse hair were used in the old days, and the sporrans are often difficult to distinguish.)

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

One can't help but noticing that in all of these illustrations the kilt "breaks" just at, or just above, the top of knee. Likewise the hose are worn several inches below the knee cap.

Traditionally, this is how it is supposed to be done.

[OC Richard]

Yes it's odd the way that in the pipe band scene, people have been wearing their kilts lower and lower.

Not just US pipe bands, and people new to wearing kilts, but Scots, Scots who have worn the kilt on a regular basis their entire lives.

Here's what I mean:





but it's not always so. SFU, the reigning World Champions, have some knee showing



The Army, though, still wear their kilts a bit on the high side and their hose a bit on the low side:

[creagdhubh]

One can't help but noticing that in all of these illustrations the kilt "breaks" just at, or just above, the top of knee. Likewise the hose are worn several inches below the knee cap.

Traditionally, this is how it is supposed to be done.

Quite right!!!

[MacBean]

.... In other words, long hair sporrans were the norm with all sorts of Highland Dress, from plain tweed jackets to the "riotous finery" of Victorian evening dress.

Here's what Day Dress looked like in the 1860's

I wonder if that is really valid. As I look back on photos from that era, families tended to dress up to sit for their portraits. It was a formal occasion, and they wore their best, whether day or night (and I suspect for light reasons it was nearly always day). I think the photos of Victoria's ghillies lying around with kilts and hair sporrans are probably misleading. My own family dressed in tails and top hats for their photos, but I sincerely doubt that was their daily habit.

All the same, I realy loved the photos. Thank you!