The Scottish Tartans: 1920, 1945, 1961

[Stewart of Galloway]

That's a very interesting observation! My sensibilities came from being in a Pipe Band in the mid 70's here in Australia, an A grade band at the time (Qld Irish) and we wore a walking out outfit as per most of the gents in this book - tweed Argyll jacket, brown sporran, brown shoes, balmoral and badge (and a green hackle).
I don't recall seeing dress outfits other than on the front of a Jimmy Shand's Party record my parents owned
We had a Scot's Pipe Major and a number of older Scots piper's and they gave us our style tips.
What I do recall was coming back to Pipe Band's recently (after 30 years away) and being rather shocked to see everyone wearing Glengarry's! Not a Balmoral in sight. Dark hose also threw me because at least in the 70's we only wore light coloured hose (I am fine with it now, having bottle green hose as well as Lovat pairs).
I am very keen on Highland Games athletics and to me the way to dress for such events is perfectly illustrated by the 'Wee Geordie's' in Semple's excellent paintings.
Perhaps I'm getting old but the long shorts poking out under the kilt look and big sloppy tshirts really seems wrong to my eye. A singlet and a kilt and hose and boots or runners or football boots looks grand and otherwise why wear the kilt at all? Just wear a tartan hat ha ha.
One event I went to the competitors (mostly ring ins from the crowd) were given women's kilts to wear, hanging down way over their knees. It looked like a clown show and that there was even a guy with one of those fancy dress red beards and tartan bonnets on his head.
I really think it is very important to uphold the old standards as they still do in Scotland.

It's a testament to the stability of the Highland Dress established in the post-WWI era that they can still use those WWII-era illustrations in the current publication and there's nothing that jumps out as being strange.

One thing that's nice is that the illustrations capture the period prior to the rise of the Kilt Hire Industry starting around 1970 which ushered in all sorts of new things like black leather "semi-dress" sporrans and the wild popularity of black Argylls and the black Prince Charlie + white hose + black Ghillies = Evening Dress formula.