Full mask sporrans revisited...

[Jock Scot]

This is fascinating to me. Is there really the perception that you can wear Highland attire but if it looks too Highland, you're a poseur? So if I was a major landholder from the Highlands, the large furry sporran is ok, but if not, I should know my place and dress in a more pedestrian fashion? Still trying to grasp Scotland's current views on class consciousness as it relates to fashion.

I have been thinking about this and it is difficult to come up with a short answer and it is even more difficult to come up with an answer that is not going to have the effect of an atom bomb on this website. That is not what I intend, so please don't shoot the messenger!

Yes there are still plenty of old fur(broad decription to include hair sporrans as well)sporrans worn in Scotland, by the Scots. I cannot think of many Scots who are wearing a new one though. There is one that comes to mind who is a member here and no doubt there are more dotted about, but let us just say new fur sporrans are not common, worn by a real Scot, in my experience.

Many Scots wear old and probbably valuable fur sporrans, why not? Why buy a new one when Grand Father's will do perfectly well?It may well be the only sporran they have and the fur sporran covers all dress options. Whether in the course of time these sporrans will be replaced with new fur sporrans is any one's guess, but personally I doubt it. Wild cats, otters, badgers, seals, pine martens are now all protected by law and with the exception of badgers and possibly seals, with good reason as they are nationaly fairly scarce. Yes indeed there are legal exceptions, such as road kill, that allow sporran makers leaway, but I can't say that I have ever seen a Scottish wildcat zapped upon the road.

So, Nathan I think you misread the class aspect more than a bit. Yes the Duke of Gumby may well be wearing a 70 year old otter sporran and the Chief of Clan MacOnion may well be wearing a rather battered and moth eaten wildcat around his waist at a gathering because that is what they have. 70 years ago is about the very end of the Victorian style excesses on Highland wildlife and their use for attire. The days of anything that was a danger to the lairds grouse, or salmon was shot on sight had almost gone. Mainly because the otter, pine marten, wildcat were almost extinct! Sense prevailed and some of those excesses have been reversed. The grouse are still there , the otter is more generally distributed and the Scottish wildcat is creating more of a problem for itself by inter-breeding with the domestic cat than with upsetting game keepers!

Now to the tricky bit! Wannabes, have and always will be around. Whether that be at the yacht club, gun club, golf club, military shows, Rodeo's(have I spelt that correctly?) or, Highland games etc.. We have people playing at being Scotsmen and trying to be more Scots than the Scots is a dead sure give away and the inappropriate use of the cromach, plaid, and in your face fur sporrans are just some of the signs of that. Lets face it, 100 years ago only the wealthy, and that probably included land ownership, could pop down to Hamilton and Inches and buy a new fur silver topped sporran and those sporrans are still going today. The only difference is that these days and in many cases the estate is a quarter of the size of what it was a 100 years ago and the overdaft is 10 times bigger and the propper raw material for making fur sporrans is vitually unavailable! And the wannabe's carry on playing at being a Laird and or, playing at being a Scot with their often inapropriate, non native and in your face fur sporrans.