modern "Semi Dress" sporrans

[figheadair]

My theory is that "semi-dress" sporrans were rapidly cobbled together, and gleaming white hose created, to be hired along with black Prince Charlie coatees. (One question: did the shoe makers start putting extra-long shoestrings on the Ghillies so they could be laced all the way up? My Ghillies don't have laces that long.)

Please, I need to sleep later.

[figheadair]

I have seen the claim the the original ghillies laced above the ankle so the shoe would not pull off in the mud and/or the long laces could be used to hold up the socks - or rather lower leg coverings pre-elastic.

There's claim, and then there's evidence. I don't think there is an historical reference, painting or photograph to support this.

[MacKenzie]

There's claim, and then there's evidence.

Agree.

One of the things I've been looking for since I posted I found right here in a post by OCR from 12 years ago. Post #8... 19th century shoes/footwear (xmarksthescot.com)


So how far "above our saide ancklers" was the "stronge thwange" tied?

[Jock Scot]

There's claim, and then there's evidence. I don't think there is an historical reference, painting or photograph to support this.

I have no idea and frankly, I have no wish to find out.

[OC Richard]

I have seen the claim the the original ghillies laced above the ankle so the shoe would not pull off in the mud and/or the long laces could be used to hold up the socks - or rather lower leg coverings pre-elastic.

Interesting, I've not run across that claim. I wonder what the original source is? Or if it's someone's speculations.

I've looked over every source I have (limited because I'm in the USA and don't have regular access to the museums in Scotland) and I can't find anything about how our Ghillie Brogues came about.

The 18th and early 19th century portraits show ordinary shoes. Then Ghillie Brogues appear, around the time of the Vestiarium Scoticum and every other sort of fakery and attempts to revive a re-imagined past.

The Ghillies shown in the Highlanders of Scotland are all roughout tan leather, save for one black pair. This suggests they are thought of as a rural shoe, but are they a survival, or a revival? Either way I've not seen an image of pre-Victorian Ghillies.

It's tempting to marry up the Victorian Ghillies with the letter hundreds of years earlier explaining how Highlanders made their own deerhide moccasins, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence to fill in the large time gap between.

It's also tempting to marry up the Victorian Ghillies with the Aran Islanders' pamputai, but once again I would need to see evidence of a link between these and Victorian Ghillies.

[OC Richard]

Alright, I've looked over every vintage photo I have of kilted men in Scotland and this is the only photo I have showing an animal mask sporran within an Evening Dress setting, though the gent wearing the animal mask sporran isn't himself in Evening attire. As you see there's a mix of men in proper Evening Dress and men in what appears to be Day Dress.

The collars suggest the Edwardian period, making it the earliest photo I've seen of the Prince Charlie Coatee.

[Jock Scot]

Alright, I've looked over every vintage photo I have of kilted men in Scotland and this is the only photo I have showing an animal mask sporran within an Evening Dress setting, though the gent wearing the animal mask sporran isn't himself in Evening attire. As you see there's a mix of men in proper Evening Dress and men in what appears to be Day Dress.

The collars suggest the Edwardian period, making it the earliest photo I've seen of the Prince Charlie Coatee.

I wonder if the Prince Charlie Coatee, sailed under that name then?

Tweed was not unusual in those days for evening attire-------with one proviso. The gentleman had to be known as a visitor/s AND known to the host, or close friend of the host who could vouch for the tweed clad gentleman. Allowances were made in those days --------if there was a good reason. See below.

My imagination is running riot here! I don't think that I would be far wrong though. It appears that the "City set" have invited the "Country Cousins" around for a drink. Perhaps wee dram or six might persuade the locals to let the "City Set" fish on the best salmon fishing in Scotland or shoot grouse on the best moor in the area? Who knows?

[figheadair]

The collars suggest the Edwardian period, making it the earliest photo I've seen of the Prince Charlie Coatee.

Any earlier and the men would likely to have been in a White Tie for dinner. I can’t imagine a Full Mask sporran being acceptable, nor even for Black Tie, at that date.

[MacKenzie]

The collars suggest the Edwardian period

What do you make of the fellow's tie/collar that is immediately behind Mr. Mask Sporran? To me it appears to be a regular neck tie with a more modern(?) fold-down collar.

[Troglodyte]

This is an interesting discussion...

Over the years, I have formed the impression that much of the 'reason' behind various items of Highland dress have been applied retrospectively - either to make their product (such as semi-dress sporrans) viable and acceptable, or to try and make up for a lack of knowledge.

There are numerous accounts of the ancient Highlanders making their own raw-hide footwear, prefering the skin of the hough as it is already nicely formed to fit around the heel of the foot, and with enough skin to fold up around the toes and instep. A thong would be cut and used for lacing.

It's not difficult to work out how long shoes of this sort might last - perhaps only a few days, or the length of the journey - but holes were pierced to allow water to drain out.

Get a skilled cobbler to apply this hole-piercing and long-lacing to his shoe-making skills, and you end up with something along the ghillie-brogue lines we see today. Indeed, I have seen Victorian catalogues which refer to the ordinary brogue as 'Highland'.

Interestingly, Edmund Burt records how Wade's new roads, useful as they were for military and wheeled-traffic needs, the Highanders took to avoiding them, preferring long detours across open country, as the roadstone shredded their shoes and injured their feet. Properly soled shoes would not be thus affected.

The idea of various levels of formality (or otherwise) in dress, is really a Victorian invention formed by the new middle-classes whose wealth as a result of the industrial revolution needed display in various ways. We see this with the invention of things like cutlery for the fish course at dinner, and new conventions in dress - such as the dinner-jacket.

As so much of what we now think of as traditional Highland dress is really nothing more than Victorian play-acting and reinvention, the amount of confusion is perhaps much less than it could be. But the question of sporrans is where it runs high.

A tweed jacket (as opposed to a sporting coat) is still known as a 'change-coat' in the army, and a 'half-change' at the likes of Eton College, and that give us a useful clue to how it was originally used. There are some gentleman who have been known for their old-fashioned preferrence for wearing a tweed jacket in the evening (when at home or with friends) instead of the expected dinner-jacket, or Tuxedo as it is known in the USA.

Having a variety of sporrans to suit every occasion and formality level is really quite a modern (post-war) thing, but it adds to the fun of wearing Highland dress. My own clan chief has one very plain mid-tan sporran (complete with his personal crest, of course) that he wears for virtually all occasions, and reserves a splendid silver-trimmed fur and tassel job for special evenings only. But I know of some old Highland gentlemen who wear plain black leather sporrans with their evening-dress.

We're in the thick of the Games season here in Scotland at the moment, and a good many of the old-hands who have grown up wearing Highland dress are to be seen officiating and sporting kilt outfits of a wide variety. Much of what is to be seen would make the purists feel their art is under attack, but scrutiny of the individuals' outfits would reveal they are well within the bounds of the-done-thing.

There are always the exceptions that prove the rule, of course..!

Ghillie-brogues are often singled out for contempt, cited as being an invention with no tradition, but we no longer see them with red laces that were once the norm, or even with buckles on the toes. So they have been toned down a fair bit to suit modern tastes.

But, even as late as 1947, the then Lord Lyon, Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, wrote:

Attempts by self-concious lowlanders to convert the picturesque dress of the Gael into a 'quiet style' and to deprive the garb of its ornaments or reduce it to drab monotony of Anglo-Saxon evening clothes are un-Scottish and contemptible.


So what do we all make of that..?