rethinking "traditional" dress and the Hire impact

[OC Richard]

A new band I joined in 1970 had Prince Charlies and this time cable knit white hose.

That fits with what I've been able to glean, that the heavy "Arran" hose/ghillies/Prince Charlie/Balmoral bonnet look probably began in Canada.

Those Arran hose, I'm almost positive, would have been "natural" hose, in the unbleached offwhite wool, rather than the bleached artificial gleaming white hose of the 1980s.

The Canadian look invades Scotland, 1970s.

[McMurdo]

I've been thinking about this one for a bit, I did some digging and found these photos featuring my old pipe instructor who is at the front of the first photo.


Notice the Regulation Doublet and Argyll hose


Another member of the band but this photo shows the buckle brogues


Shows them marching. These are all Pipes and Drums of Toronto circa 1971 so at this point they were still wearing this not the white hose. I have a few more photos to post and will do so later today after work.

[Shinenotburn]

I've been thinking about this one for a bit, I did some digging and found these photos featuring my old pipe instructor who is at the front of the first photo.


Notice the Regulation Doublet and Argyll hose


Another member of the band but this photo shows the buckle brogues


Shows them marching. These are all Pipes and Drums of Toronto circa 1971 so at this point they were still wearing this not the white hose. I have a few more photos to post and will do so later today after work.

They look to be wearing drummers plaids as well. Is that Cabar Feidh, McMurdo?

[McMurdo]

They look to be wearing drummers plaids as well. Is that Cabar Feidh, McMurdo?

Yes that’s them. My pipe instructor was Ron Rollo who sadly passed away in 2011. Here is a photo of Ron and I at the Fergus Highland games in I think 2007

[McMurdo]

Here is another photo of the band Thanks to June Rollo for it.



Front Row. LtoR. Chris Anderson P/M, Jimmy MacPherson, David Adamson, Rudy Schaal, Kenny Gilmour, David Cook, Ron Rollo.
Back Row. Lto R.
Andy Miller,(tenor), Tim Orr, (d) Graham Clarke,(d) Jimmy MacLean (d), Jim Orr, George Shand, Andy Herd (bass), ?...still can't think of his name!

[Shinenotburn]

Those are a very interesting cut jacket. Looks like what the Alexander brothers used to wear. I notice they were wearing flaps but no buckles at the time.

A great band, hard to beat back in those days.

[OC Richard]

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.





Or they could be coatees, another post-WWII fad, due to the UK Highland regiments adopting coatees in 1953.

In any case I recently came across this photo of Triumph Street in 1978, early wearers of what was to become the standard Pipe Band dress ever since, the black Argyll & Ghillies look. Notice the leather sporrans were brown, at that time Day sporrans were brown as a matter of course, but soon enough black ones would become popular.

[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.

[OC Richard]

Many people don't realise what a craze the British started when they introduced Battle Dress.

Since the mid-19th century soldiers had generally worn thigh-length tunics. When they first introduced Battle Dress in 1937 it was derided as looking like a workman's overalls but during the war the look became so popular that both the US army and the German army copied it (the M44 tunic).

This went hand-in-glove with the huge popularity of the US Army Air Corps' short leather jackets.

The popularity of these short jackets spilled over into civilian clothing when millions of men who had worn them in the military suddenly became civilians. We saw them all the time on TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ8IBQ0MNKs

As sharp-looking as those cropped jackets were, I wouldn't expect there to be a resurrection in this style! We have to keep in mind that the Scottish musicians and the bus-drivers and postal workers and everybody else who wore cropped jackets in the 1950s had worn them in the 1940s in the military.

BTW the Alexander Brothers didn't always appear in such showbizzy outfits, here they are in check tweed, ancient-colours kilts, and brown leather hunting sporrans with brass cantles. (The pompadour hair and narrow ties and lapels suggest this is around 1960)