Jacket search

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

If you turn up the collar of a jacket, the lapels fold across your chest. With a properly made jacket (like they used to make up until the 1950s) you would then be able to button the left lapel to the button on the back of the right lapel. I do this all the time when driving with the top down on my motor if the weather unexpectedly turns chilly.

At the time the photo was taken kilt jackets were styled with a more open, or cut away front, with the jacket buttoning much higher than is now the fashion. Since a gentleman wore a waistcoat this was not terribly uncomfortable, even in chilly weather. If my blasted scanner wasn't down I'd show you a photo taken c. 1910-1914 of a gentleman wearing virtually the same jacket as the boys-- Argyll cuffs, epaulettes and all. Those of you who have a copy of "THE KILT A Manual Of Scottish National Dress" will find this photo opposite page 36.

If you look closely at the photo of the children you will see the turn back cuffs of the Argyll jacket, epaulettes, and on the boy to the left of the photo, what looks suspiciously like a button hole at the mid-point of the jacket. I suspect, as alluded to previously, that if the boys had been wearing collars and ties the jackets would not have been buttoned at the neck, and there would have been no confusion as to the style of the jackets they are wearing.