Wearing a glengarry

[terry m]

I would like to purchase a glengarry hat but I am at a loss as to how it is properly worn and if it is only worn on formal occaisons. I would like to wear a saltire badge or my favourite, the Scottish lion rampant with it. Also when it is not being worn on the head ie in church is it correct to wear it through the eppaulette military style? Is a glengarry only properly worn with the prince Charlie type formal jacket or could you wear it with the casual kilt?
Any advice greatly appreciated.

[Tarheel]

I wear my glengarry with my clan badge attached. Here is a photo of my most informal setting with me wearing the cap. I set a personal standard that if I wear a tie (as a minimal extra) I will don my cap. Other times, my glengarry is replaced with less formal headgear suitable for the occasion. The glengarry offers a sense of propriety and respect without all the extra apparel and certainly completes the whole ensemble of formal attire.

[MacEanruig]

It depends on your personal preference. I don't personal wear a Glengarry, but if I did, I would wear it as the Dress Regulations, The Royal Regiment of Scotland proscribe: "The Glengarry should be worn at a jaunty angle tilted to the right." This was also the way many older veterans were instructed to wear there service caps of similar design. I would think that it should be worn tilted about two fingers above your right eyebrow. Also the ribbons are customarily worn untied.

Glengary.jpg

[Tarheel]

MacEanruig is spot on with the "jaunty tilt" of the glengarry. Notice in my photo there is more distance from my left ear to the rim of the cap than my right ear. The peak (crease at the front of the cap) is also a "military" distance of two finger widths above my eyebrow. A personal choice of my own, is the peak is centered over the beginning of my right eyebrow. That slight askew of the cap, gives a swagger that accentuates my crow-footed eyes when I smile.

I must point out, my ponytail is on my right shoulder, the ribbons of the cap are untied and down my back.

[IsaacW]

Is a glengarry only properly worn with the prince Charlie type formal jacket or could you wear it with the casual kilt?
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Like most bonnets, I would not wear them in a formal setting at all, and if I did... only outdoors.

[Geoff Withnell]

As far as wearing the glengarry through the epaulette, that will not usually work as well as it does with military "service caps" as they are softer and more flexible than the typical glengarry. All the glengarries I have handled have very stiff sides, which help maintain the shape when worn. When I am wearing the SAMS uniform, which for my Post includes the glengarry, if the cap is not on top of my head, I fold it flat, and slide the back end up under my belt, on my left side, about where a sword frog would go if I were wearing a sword.

[HighlandPark]

As far as wearing the glengarry through the epaulette, that will not usually work as well as it does with military "service caps" as they are softer and more flexible than the typical glengarry. All the glengarries I have handled have very stiff sides, which help maintain the shape when worn. When I am wearing the SAMS uniform, which for my Post includes the glengarry, if the cap is not on top of my head, I fold it flat, and slide the back end up under my belt, on my left side, about where a sword frog would go if I were wearing a sword.

I play as a civilian in a police band (RCMP) and have been instructed to never tuck my Glen beneath my epaulet; apparently, there is a connotation to surrender or something like, which may be more from a military tradition than anything. Can anyone verify this?

Instead, we are to tuck our Glens into the belt outside our serges.

[LANCER1562]

On the rare occasion that I wear my glengarry, when it's not on my head I tuck it under my kilt belt on the right side as I used to do with my service cap when I was in the Army.

[OC Richard]

I would like to purchase a glengarry hat but I am at a loss as to how it is properly worn

The Glengarry and Balmoral have long been popular in civilian Highland Dress, and both have moved from the civilian world into the military. It's a common misconception that the Glengarry is a specifically military hat.

As to how it's worn, that has varied a bit over the years. The Glengarry of the 1860s is virtually the same as the Glengarry today. However in the last quarter of the 19th century, and well into the first quarter of the 20th, it was the fashion to wear a Glengarry a size or two smaller and have it perched at an angle on the head.

The new military style is to wear a Glengarry straight on the head and shoved down as far as possible.

when it is not being worn on the head is it correct to wear it through the epaulette military style?

At least for me, my Glengarries are too big to shove through the epaulette of most jackets. What pipe band people usually do is shove them under their sporran strap. Do Highland soldiers shove their Glengarries through their epaulettes? I can't recall it.

Is a glengarry only properly worn with the prince Charlie type formal jacket or could you wear it with the casual kilt?

Though either the Balmoral or Glengarry can be worn on any sort of occasion informal or formal, you wouldn't normally see any sort of hat worn with the Prince Charlie or any other Evening Dress jacket, because Evening Dress is usually worn indoors.

You use the term "casual kilt" and as casual kilts are a new creation the traditional ways of wearing Highland Dress really don't apply.

Time for pics!

Typical mid-19th century plain ordinary civilian Highland Dress, c1860, with a Glengarry much like today's



The late 19th/early 20th century style, especially in the Army, of wearing a very small Glengarry



A civilian with a similar tiny Glengarry



Canadian Pipe Majors, 1940, showing the consistent hat angle of the fashionable soldier. Note how similar the Glengarry is made and worn to the c1860 photo above; odd that the hat should shrink, reaching its smallest around 1890, then should gradually grow again to its original size.



The recent Army style, shoved down right to the eyebrows and worn straight (or nearly straight) on the head

[plaid preacher]

Funny you should ask about headdress. The other day I was walking along the street and spied a member of our local constabulary using his ears to hold up his cap which was too large and too far back on his head. Now I suspect that you will find there are as many opinions on here as there are heads, but in my opinion far too many men wear headdress that is too large and too far back - probably because too few men wear any hat other than a ball cap, at all. It is clear the dress regs are that the glengarry is worn a finger to two over the eye, and slightly canted to the right. (no great expanse of forehead, no jaunty angle). Here are the current Dress Regs for the RROS http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...sHandBook.pdf; the glengarry is specifically addressed on Page 57, but do note the pictures. And although I was an officer, pay close attention to how the warrant officers wear their uniforms, they are the ones who take great pride.

As for keeping your lid under your epaulette when not on your head,an RSM said to me once quite simply : "We don't do that, only the Americans do." I note you come from the UK, and therefore I would heed that advise.