Evolution of the Modern Kilt

[OC Richard]

Here's a starter for 10 - the Supporters to the Arms of Skene (1692).

I should point out that, according to H F McClintock, that drawing dates from the 19th century.

He says of it:

The Arms of Skene of that Ilk as figured in Alexander Nisbet's Heraldic Plates, a collection of Heraldic drawings made in the early 19th century but not published until 1892.


This drawing is said to have been made from a stone at Skene carved in 1672 and shows the Arms of Skene "supported on the dexter by a Highlandman in his proper garb... and supported on the sinister by another in servile habit... all proper."

Both of the supporters are in trews. The one on the dexter side is wearing tartan trews together with what is evidently intended to be a belted plaid. The other man has what looks like a pair of tattered trews of plain light-coloured cloth, together with tartan stockings. He has no visible plaid, but wears over his trews the supposed kilt which, if it can be so called, is very different from any kilt that we see nowadays, being so short as hardly to reach below the hips, and being pleated in front...

Even if the drawing does show the fillabeg, it only establishes that garment to the early 19th century. I await a clear photo of the stone itself, which if it clearly shows a fillabeg, would establish that garment to whatever period the stone could firmly be dated to. The wording itself only states "Highlandman" and "servile garb".