distinction between dress plaid and hunting plaid

[figheadair]

John is correct about the mid-late Victorian origin for the differentiation and the reasons why.

A description of nobleman's dress in the 1600s would depend on a number of things not least which end of the century you are talking about. At the beginning it would have been more mediaeval but by the late C17th you'd have found something more like the dress that we associate with Culloden era Highlanders. Look at the first and last posts here for an example of a Highland chief's clothing.

Prior to that era (and prior to the 1747 Act of Proscription which banned the wear of tartan), folk wore whatever was available.

John, that's not quite correct. It's an interesting distinction and an assumption often made but the Act banned the kilt, plaid, and Highland clothes but not actually tartan.