Fly plaid advice.

[OC Richard]

What would make a "fly plaid" in a different tartan from the kilt look odd is that the very purpose was to simulate the appearance of the "great kilt" or "belted plaid"; here's the original garment all in one piece



and when they seperated the kilt into the "little kilt" the army devised a garment called the "belted plaid", worn in Full Dress, to simulate the old great kilt. These "belted plaids" as they have always been called are a rather heavy, complex, and expensive garment, made of three seperate pieces of tartan, and fringed all round with rolled fringe



The modern "fly plaid" is simply a square of tartan with plain fringe and is, more or less, a cheap copy of the traditional "belted plaid".

Anyhow it is seen sometimes, the wearing of full plaids/long plaid in a contrasting tartan, because the long plaid isn't simulating anything. Look close (not at the DM, at the pipers)


and one often sees the odd plaids or semi-cloaks or whatever in USA "Irish" pipe bands of a different fabric than the kilt, but of course these costumes are a c1900 creation