Let's talk about ghillie brogues again: the Highland perspective

[Riverkilt]

Had my hopes up there briefly....maybe they make ghillies in sizes for WIDE feet....alas...even though they offer wide shoes in some models looks like they only offer medium.

Baffles me how folks can sell a shoe for Scotsmen in a narrow width....maybe someday....sigh...

[McElmurry]

Some great answers but they seem to be all stateside (except one Aussie)

Yes our Highland guides seem to be otherwise occupied or trying to formulate an appropriate response.

[MacMillans son]

Yes our Highland guides seem to be otherwise occupied or trying to formulate an appropriate response.

Or perhaps, experiencing the dreaded "Topic Fatigue"

[Downunder Kilt]

Or maybe its because its about 5.30 am there

[MacMillans son]

Or maybe its because its about 5.30 am there

Well, sure...there's always that

[McElmurry]

Or perhaps, experiencing the dreaded "Topic Fatigue"

That had occurred to me and I imagined them working up the energy to provide nuanced insight once again. It may be on the issue at hand that the cat is not just out of the bag but has had so may litters that any hope of reversing the trend has been extinguished.

[ThistleDown]

OCR said What I find interesting is how ghillies evolved from a shoe with (evidently) strong rural/rustic connexions in the 1860s to a formal shoe by the 1930s. Yes, that's interesting for me, too. Elsewhere I've talked about my father's fastidiousness and his love for fine footwear appropriate to its purpose. He had patent ghillies and I wish I had kept them when he passed away -- if for no other reason than to show them here.

He didn't wear ghillies other than with evening dress that I recall, but some time in the early sixties I acquired a pair of very heavy soled ones with "real" holes to let the water in and out and did wear them for perhaps twenty years. About then I bought a new pair (sans holes) and once in a while still wear them. They weigh almost nothing at all despite their thick soles. I've no idea who made them but thus far they've lived perhaps thirty years (with some good care and periodic attention, I must say).

Footwear is a terribly personal thing, isn't it? Great heavy leather boots for the moors was the way, or wellies if the ground was particularly boggy. Today the wellies are still around, but often other boots are much lighter and foot-conforming. As I get older I find I want shoes more for comfort than for style or, I am happy to admit, tradition.

I still wear my ghillies once in a while although there are few others who do. I lace them up my calf a bit, too and can't recall any smirks or strange looks from relatives, friends or neighbours; but then most are far too polite to show their distaste even if it were present.

[Phil]

I think the reason for any lack of Scottish-based response can be found in the underlying reason behind this thread -
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-people-75011/ -

which highlighted the fascination shown by some for inconsequential trivia when it comes to wearing any clothing of a supposed Scottish origin (by this I mean, of course, the kilt and whatever other items one chooses to accompany it with).

Ghillie brogues are, in fact, shoes. Nothing more nor less. Items made, usually of leather, which are worn on the feet to prevent the wearer from wearing out the skin on the soles of the feet. In this case they are of a particular design not generally found elsewhere, and have been adopted by many highland dress wearers because of their distinctive appearance, thus setting them apart from general footwear and, by that means, emphasising the special and distinctive nature of highland dress. They have, in fact, generally superseded their predecessors, the buckle brogue shoe. There are many reasons for this but the chief among them is the perception, and this is one conveyed to me by the staff of Geoffrey (tailor) in Edinburgh that they convey the impression that the wearer is “a bit of a jessie”. For those unfamiliar with Scottish parlance this translates as “looking a bit effeminate”. The reader will, of course, be familiar with similar sentiments expressed by members of this Forum who express quite strong views about this type of shoe, calling them “Mary Janes” being fairly typical. So you can see why such sentiment has taken peoples’ preference away from one distinctively Scottish item of footwear and on to another. I mean who wants to be regarded as effeminate? Especially when one is wearing what many people may regard as a skirt when in a country not familiar with this item of Scottish national dress?
As to the battle between ghillie brogues and everyday brogues of the standard English pattern with a tongue and short laces. Well availability is everything here. Every shoe shop in every small town or village in every remote glen will have a stock of such plain brogues alongside the Wellington boots and other footwear favoured by the locals, mostly involved in agrarian pursuits from farming to deer-stalking. Ghillie brogues, however, well you have to go to the big city for those. So (sigh) needs must and we just have to make do with what is available. Everybody else gets his shoes from wee Jocks shop on the main street so if we are all wearing the same shoes they must be the right ones. Yes?

[OC Richard]

the fascination shown by some for inconsequential trivia when it comes to wearing any clothing of a supposed Scottish origin

Yes indeed I do have a fascination with such inconsequential trivia! I love that stuff. Call me odd or whatever... I always want to find out about things, be it linguistics or genetics or history or music or whatever.

Take this painting again. It rewards extensive study, like most of The Highlanders of Scotland paintings do.



The man on the left, an ordinary soldier... but note his shoes, neither our modern Mary Janes nor Ghillies, but something else. Officers at that time wore low-cut loafers the buckles on which were obviously nonfunctional (in other words, the shoes were slip-ons) but what about these? Did these buckles function like those of 18th century shoes? And note that the turnover cuffs on his hose aren't matching tartan as on modern full hose, but marl.

The man in the centre... very interesting... same footwear kilt etc as the soldier but note that he's wearing a plain civilian jacket. A civilian hired to pipe for the regiment? And a cool dirk with knife and fork side by side, with tan leather.

The man on the right. Note the typical tan roughout ghillies, but also that the ghillies have fewer tongues than modern ghillies do. In The Highlanders of Scotland ghillies appear with four sets of tongues (like modern ghillies) but also with only three sets, and even only two sets such as here. And, there's a pair with no tongues, in other words, an open top with laces crossing over this opening. An invention of a crazed artist? Hardly, because the exact shoes appear in an old catalogue I have from 1930

[John_Carrick]

[QUOTE=Phil;1113439]I think the reason for any lack of Scottish-based response can be found in the underlying reason behind this thread -
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-people-75011/ -

Ghillie brogues, however, well you have to go to the big city for those.

At the risk of being very uncouth, I found the Lidl (supermarket) ghillie brogues on sale in Inverness for £15 to look pretty much like the ones on sale in the kilt shops, with the exception that they were plastic soled, comfortable and the laces would stay tied during the evening.
I have a proper pair with won't stay done up and have metal soles which caused me to go base over apex in the middle of Belfast.

John