Kilts and Flat Caps

[Luke MacGillie]

If you wear a traditional bonnet, not the beret'ish amalgamation you can pull it forward to shade your eyes, its pretty much a flat cap.

Then there are the billed headwear of the 19th century, feather bonnets and even just diced bonnets with bills on them.

We need a new word, since "Traditional" has the generally accepted definition of doing something the way your grandparents did it, and Im usually doing something the way my 5th to 7th Great Grandparents were doing it LOL

[Taskr]

I have donned a flat cap when the weather dictates. Having worn it for uniform, it seems odd to me to wear a balmoral bonnet for civilian wear even though it is seemingly ubiquitous. Maybe I will get there some day.

[StevenG]

Pub caps are my preferred style of cap when kilted. They just look better to my eye than the more traditional headwear.

[OC Richard]

"Traditional" has the generally accepted definition of doing something the way your grandparents did it

I've borrowed the distinction between "traditional" and "historical" that's used in music.

"Traditional" is a currently surviving thing which goes back to an unknown origin through an unbroken lineage of evolution. Therefore traditional things are current.

If the thing died out at some point- fell out of use- then it's not traditional, but historical.

Take sporrans for example. The mid-18th century deerskin sporran gave way to the hair sporran by the end of that century. Around 1820 or so the hair started getting longer, so by 1840 you had the long hair sporran. This remained the standard sporran in all modes of Highland Dress until around 1910 or so, when new sporran designs replaced the old (except in the Army, where the long hair sporran continues to this day).

Punctuated equilibrium, it's called.

The traditional sporrans made by respected Scottish makers really haven't changed much since the 1920s. Perhaps some day sporran design will undergo another leap in evolution, who can say. (I'm talking sporrans made in Scotland for Highland Dress as worn in the Highlands by Highlanders.)

In any case wearing traditional Highland Dress in whole would mean wearing a traditional sporran. Wearing one of the styles which has died out would be mixing traditional and historical Highland Dress. I do that! When I wear my long goathair sporran.

Here's another photo of gentlemen in Highland Dress wearing things other than Scottish bonnets



And the King in a flat cap



The traditional bonnet worn with Highland Dress, the Balmoral bonnet, hasn't changed much over the centuries. Here's our earliest clear depiction of a Highland piper, 1714



Circa 1850-1860, hasn't changed much. You do see a much wider variety in bonnet shapes at that time than today. Some were very narrow, some very wide. Most were in the middle, similar to today's.

[Tasty Rabbit]

Personally I wear a flat cap with my kilts . As has been shown it was done in the past so can be considered to be traditional but still with hats there is a practical side . I mean , a tweed flat cap might not be a good choice for a kilted hike along the Grand Canyon . Of course the number one factor is ... do the ladies like it ? If the answer "yes" than your choice is correct .

[Farmer Jones]

My flat cap is made of the same tweed as my Argyle jacket, so yes.

[Zardoz]

It's not a costume or a uniform, so the accessories are up to you.

Sorry about the sideways pic, technology not cooperating ��

[javankrona]

I love my flat caps, but I decided to try a bucket cap with my kilt ")



-Cheers

[Terry Searl]

I would like to throw my flat cap in the ring, on this subject:

I have been wearing a flat cap lately, with my kilt. I am a safety patrolman on a regional park trail. I wear a kilt daily. The Balmoral's I own are just too much..... a baseball cap looks (in my opinion) as bad as if I were wearing a cowboy hat with a kilt... when trying on a old fashioned style, flat cap, and looking in the mirror, it looked great to my eye.
Then I read all the comments about whether it is apropos or not?!??!?! It shouldn't matter, but it bothered me that some kilt snobs might frown upon it, if I wear it amongst other kilt wearers....so, I did some research. Here's what I found. Scotsmen have been wearing this combination since at least mid nineteenth century! I have found numerous early photographs, proving this!
I was also watching a YouTube videos the other day, where two different Scotsmen were demonstrating how to fold and wear a great kilt. I believe one was even filmed at Edinburgh Castle.....Guess what both Scotsmen were wearing? You guessed it.....a kilt with a flat cap!
Yesterday, I went to the Scottish Games, in Pleasanton, California....there were almost as many kilt wearers, wearing this combination as there were wearing traditional balmorals and Glengarry's !
so to you kilt snobs, I say GET OVER YOURSELVES and enjoy diversity!

I've been wearing flat caps for almost 35 years, long before they were as popular as they seem to be becoming now. They are easy to fold and tuck away when I enter a room and I seldom have to remember to return and retrieve them as you might with any other type of hat that gets forgotten
I have 3 diffrent ones to wear with my kilt depending of the jacket and hose I have on, but whether kilted or not it is my hat style of choice. As with everything in fashion, .......it comes and goes and comes back again........Wear what makes ya' happy not what others think ya' should

[Bruce Scott]

I would like to throw my flat cap in the ring, on this subject:


I was also watching a YouTube videos the other day, where two different Scotsmen were demonstrating how to fold and wear a great kilt. I believe one was even filmed at Edinburgh Castle.....Guess what both Scotsmen were wearing? You guessed it.....a kilt with a flat cap!

Was this one of the videos you watched?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEmES4-7kvc