pipers plaid

[glasgow32]

I recently purchased a pipers plaid and am having trouble getting it too look like it does in pictures. I have watched a Youtube video repeatedly, but still having no luck. Any advice?

[OC Richard]

Does it have the pleats sewn in, or is it just a big piece of tartan yardage, fringed at both ends?

There are various approaches to putting on the long plaid. (In the military certain officers and sergeants wear them with certain orders of dress, not just pipers.)

They're all the same in that you have to end up with the thing wrapped snugly around your body, under the right armpit, both ends going through the epaulette on the left shoulder, with the end which comes from your right armpit across your front and up towards your left shoulder going over the other end through the epaulette on your left shoulder, and hanging long down behind, usually ending around where the top of your spats or hose are.

The question is what to do with the other end, the shorter end, the end that goes from your right armpit across your back and up through the epaulette on your left shoulder, underneath the long end of the plaid.

You see old photos with this short end just left dangling down in front. But usually in the military it's hidden by some means. I've tucked it under the part of the plaid that goes across my chest. In a band I was in years ago, we took the left-shoulder shell off our doublet, and twisted that short end of the plaid and formed it more or less to the shape of the missing shell, tucking it in somewhere (I forget just where). The old guy in the band had served with the Cameron Highlanders in WWII and presumably had got this method there.

All this stuff is easy to demonstrate but difficult to put into words.

But anyhow this is what it needs to end up looking like:





Note that the leading edge of the long portion which hangs down behind is brought forward and pinned with the brooch.

[Thomas H]

Can anyone wear a Fly Plaid or is it reserved for just Pipers and Military?

[creagdhubh]

Can anyone wear a Fly Plaid or is it reserved for just Pipers and Military?

Anyone can wear them. Usually you seen them being worn with Highland evening attire, and I tend to think they look especially good with evening doublets, not jackets or coatees. I also like them with a purled fringe, in place of straight fringe. Just my opinion.

[Tobus]

Can anyone wear a Fly Plaid or is it reserved for just Pipers and Military?

A fly plaid is not the same as a piper's plaid. Which are you talking about?

[creagdhubh]

A fly plaid is not the same as a piper's plaid. Which are you talking about?

Quite right, I didn't catch that. I was speaking of the fly plaid, not sure if the other chap was still discussing the piper's plaid or if he immediately went into a discussion of the fly plaid - to me, it sounded like the latter!

Cheers,

[Thomas H]

Quite right, I didn't catch that. I was speaking of the fly plaid, not sure if the other chap was still discussing the piper's plaid or if he immediately went into a discussion of the fly plaid - to me, it sounded like the latter!

Cheers,

[OC Richard]

Can anyone wear a Fly Plaid or is it reserved for just Pipers and Military?

Well that gets us into sticky terminology problems... because "fly plaid" is used for two rather different garments.

What we might nowadays call a "fly plaid" is simply a square of tartan, fringed all round, put throught the epaulette and pinned with a brooch, the rest simply hanging down behind.

As far as I can tell, this is a recent invention and was never, and is not today, worn by the Scottish regiments.

What was, and is, worn by the Scottish regiments, is the garment which was always called in the old days the "belted plaid". (Not to be confused with the "great kilt" or feileadh-mor or breacan-an-feileadh.) But sometimes it was referred to as a "fly plaid".

This is an elaborate garment. It is a square of tartan, with long rolled fringe on three sides. The fourth side is gathered and "let" into a narrow belt of the same tartan, which fastens around the waist with a buckle. On the side opposite the belt, a triangle of tartan is attached. It has matching long rolled fringe on two sides, the third side being gathered and sewn onto the body of the plaid. This tab of fringed tartan is put through the epaulette and pinned with a brooch.

Here is one with the basting stitches still intact so you don't see its full width, nor can you see the entire cloth belt which goes round the waist.



From the period which the feileadh-mor was discontinued in the Highland regiments (around 1800) this "belted plaid" was worn by all ranks in Full Dress to simulate the appearance the feileadh-mor. It continued to be worn by officers, and sometimes sergeants, and sometimes other ranks in Full Dress up to today.

It is often called a "drummers' plaid" today, probably because drummers in military pipe bands have long worn them. Likewise the long plaid is often called a "pipers' plaid" though it was also worn by officers and certain sergeants in several Scottish regiments.

The "belted plaid" was rarely worn by pipers, but I did come across a vintage photo of a piper of the Cameron Highlanders wearing one. (As opposed to hundreds of photos of pipers of the Cameron Highlanders wearing long plaids.)



Here's the belted plaid's more usual role, worn by officers in Full Dress and Levee Dress



Back to the long plaids, here's civilians wearing them with the front end fully showing





Now here's a photo where the end in front is very short, but still visible



In the old days the long plaid was just a rectangle of cloth, without formalised pleats, even in the Army



This photo is interesting because it shows at even an early date less fabric being used for the long plaid. Originally it was a length of full-width kilting tartan. Here you can see a half-width plaid, which is the standard today. (The exception being the Scots Guards.)



And lastly the typical mix of belted and long plaids in the same regiment, here the long plaids worn by pipers and a bandsman, short plaid by a sergeant (but not by the drummer)

[Pleater]

In bad weather and when drumming for the Border Morris I wear a long plaid, very useful as I wear the drum on my right hip - something to do with being left handed.

By accident I made it a bit long, so I have enough fabric to put folds under the drum to keep the metal bits from hurting me.

I wear it in the civillian rather than military style, so the ends fall front and back. Rather than use a broach - which would interfere with the shoulder strap I use to help support the drum, I use a loop of cord to hold the two layers of folded fabric and then wrap it under my right arm and tie it close to the left shoulder. That stops the plaid sliding off the shoulder and is essential when walking in a procession.

Spreading both parts of the plaid across the body and opening out the pleats keeps off wind and rain and helps maintain body temperature - so much so that water vapour condenses over me as I dry off.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Thomas H]

Ok that was was awsome ! But is it OK for me to wear a Small Fly Plaid?
With my Ferguson Kilt to the Highland games?