rethinking "traditional" dress and the Hire impact

[Tobus]

Those are different jackets.

The earlier photos show Regulation Doublets with slash cuffs, worn with bow ties.

The shot of the whole band shows what appears to be some kind of short jacket, like Battle Dress or Ike, with gauntlet cuffs, and worn with long ties.

There was a huge yet short-lived craze in the post-WWII era for cropped jackets more or less based on the British Battle Dress jacket or the American copy of it, the "Ike jacket".

Police, security, truck drivers, postal employees, and civilians all started wearing cropped jackets and it impacted Highland Dress also.

Several Highland-ish variants appeared, the ones in that band photo are some of them, I'd bet.

Here are the Alexander Brothers in them! Loads of pipe bands wore them too, in a variety of styles.

Thread drift, but I've been somewhat curious about trying this style of jacket with the kilt for a while. You may recall a discussion we had about 2 years ago where I found on eBay an odd Ike-style jacket in forest green with gauntlet-style cuffs and square dress-type buttons. It's still for sale, LOL. You had posted a few other examples of pipe bands wearing this style jacket in that thread, and it was indeed popular for a while post-WWII.

While the photo example you provided is a bit on the comical side with the white hose and dress/dance tartan kilts, I do have to say that I could easily be persuaded to adopt this style jacket. I would want it in a decisively non-military colour (so as not to be confused with reenacting or impersonating military) and would probably forego the epaulets. No fancy cuffs or buttons. Just a straightforward plain-jane Eisenhower jacket, worn either with no belt or a simple belt without any dress buckle adornment.

This jacket style should rightly be considered a fad or trend that came and went (never becoming a tradition), but I think it's a rather dashing style that could stand a comeback. At the very least, it would be interesting as a modern daywear look with some historical precedent when one is looking to be a bit different but not too different.