Fly plaid etiquette?

[Cyd]

Here is a wedding photo taken in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, about 20 years ago. This is the norm for a Scottish wedding guest. I wouldn't go so far as to say an Argyle would be inappropriate for a wedding guest, but it's pushing it. A nice dark Crail type jacket. Quiet but both stylish and dignified, with a semi dress sporran. Absolutely never a fly plaid. The young lady was the maid of honor. The young man is her boyfriend and a guest at the wedding, not part of the wedding party. The "fuzz" on the right is just a residue from the photo album. The jacket is black wool barathea.

[OC Richard]

Yes there's a mindset here in the USA which can be summed up in the cliché phrase "If ya got it, flaunt it!"

So when I attend Burns Suppers or even morning Church services with a Scottish theme I'll see men in Prince Charlies with plaids and brooches and lace jabots and all the rest.

I myself have something of a "less is more" attitude, and 40 years of piping has got me to pare down my kit to hat, jacket, shirt, tie, kilt, sporran, socks, flashes, and shoes. No belt or waistcoat. I do wear a cap badge on my hat, but otherwise no pins or badges. (Pipers are expected to appear smart and professional and it wouldn't do to show up without jacket or hat.)

I will say that a number of times I've piped at weddings here for which one side of the family has flown over from Scotland, and they too always wear Prince Charlies even for outdoor daytime weddings (and I will be the only kilted person not so dressed). True that they don't ever seem to have plaids.

I have a number of vintage photos of Scottish weddings in which the Groom is dressed quite plainly, in Lovat tweed jacket etc. My father-in-law got married, back in the 1940s, in an ordinary suit.

BTW to make it clear there are two utterly different garments which people might refer to as a "fly plaid". One is the traditional plaid which has been worn since the early 19th century, a heavy complex garment with a narrow cloth belt which goes round the waist and a tab which goes through the epaulette, the entire thing done in rolled fringe all round.

The other appears to be a recent creation and is merely a square of cloth that pins at the shoulder and hangs down behind.

[OC Richard]

Here is the garment called a "belted plaid" in the old Highland Dress catalogues (not to be confused with the Great Kilt) which people somewhat erroneously call a "drummers plaid" (a misnomer because it was worn by all ranks in the kilted Highland regiments).

As you can see it's constructed from three pieces, a cloth belt, the rectangular main body, and the triangular tab (and there can be a fourth piece, a reinforcing bit at the juncture of the tab and the body)



As opposed to the so-called "pipers plaids" which... oops! Here's an army piper wearing the so-called drummer's plaid... so much for the "piper" and "drummer" thing...

[Father Bill]

How on earth would you don that, Richard?

[OC Richard]

Well it looks like this





The belt goes round the waist, over the kilt, under the jacket, hangs down and back up to the shoulder, where that triangular tab goes through the epaulette and is pinned.

The triangular bit hangs down in front.

The sort worn by enlisted men lacked that extra tab, and fringe, and were tied to the epaulette with a ribbon





EDIT: there's one on Ebay now! Nice to have closeup photos of the construction of the Other Ranks' plaid

[Father Bill]

I knew you'd have pix! Thanks Richard.