Semple approach to Traditional Highland Dress

[OC Richard]

There've been threads about the series of book The Scottish Tartans (W & AK Johnston, later Johnston & Bacon) and the illustrations therein.

One problem is that the books didn't start putting in publication dates until the 1945 edition.

The texts in the early edition brackets dates 1916-1921 though the illustrations were hopeless out of date by that time, having been published in a series of postcards between around 1900 and 1910.

Then a completely new set of illustrations by William Semple appeared in editions starting around 1935 (the latest date mentioned in the text).

These show the fully developed "traditional Highland Dress" that is still with us today, kilt hire and pipe bands notwithstanding.

These are mere illustrations, the invention of the illustrator, to be distinguished from portraiture.

However they do show precisely the Highland Dress being sold in the catalogues, being described as "proper" by writers, and seen in innumerable photographs from the 1930s through 1960s.

One thing to note is the hose matching the tweed of the jacket, something recommended regularly at that time.

Also note that nearly all the shoes are black and all the sporrans are brown. Black leather sporrans don't begin being sold in the catalogues until around 1980.

Here's a sample of the Semple illustrations



Here's my Semple-minded attempt at this look, with matching hose and jackets, red flashes, white shirt, and plain brown sporran and plain black shoes.

Oh! And in a couple of the photos I wore a point-collar shirt as seen in the Semple illustrations.

(This is the only kilt I have which could have existed in the 1930s.)

[User]

Thank you for posting this. I always love seeing the old catalog photos and your modern recreations of them.

[DCampbell16B]

A couple examples of ghillies. (Not trying to start something. Just an observation.)

All the bonnets are blue. Some lighter, some darker.

[Troglodyte]

Demonstrated perfectly, OC..!

Once the illustrations had become 20th century in their fashion style, I think they found much more accord with the kilt-wearing public, and changed little until, say, the 1990s.

There seems to then come a new kilt-wearing generation who had different ideas of fashion, and colour tones in both tweeds and tartans took a turn for earthier and muddier (perhaps more natural was intended), and the paler fawns and 'stone' shades of tweed with conventional clan tartans now seem to be less popular. And so the Semple illustrations seem now seem quaintly old-fashioned.

Most of the Highland Dress outfitters I see here in northern Scotland have their shop-windows display the latest trends - no doubt to attract the young gent getting kitted out for his wedding and the like. The current fashion is for all grey - which makes the whole outfit look as if it has been given a dunking in black dye - not enough to make eveything totally black, but close enough.

Personally, I prefer the softer, paler shades Semple shows, but I cannot remember when I last saw such tweeds in stock garments. Hose, too, are now seldom seen in soft, tweed-matching tones - perhaps we here a Xmarks should start a revivalist movement...

[Tomo]

Hose, too, are now seldom seen in soft, tweed-matching tones - perhaps we here a Xmarks should start a revivalist movement...

I have found that Rowan Felted Tweed DK makes for great tweed-matching tones...

[Janner52]

The illustrations depict the kilt and accompanying garments worn in scenarios which make the wearer appear relaxed and natural. They make the kilt look an attractive garment which the observer would want to own.

From where I am looking some of the shoes appear brown. This could be an attempt to portray reflected colour however, in contrast others are obviously black.

What I very much like are the bonnets. They are clearly a single colour, apart from the tourie, and have no dicing. This makes them much more attractive to me.

They are also well fitted and shaped and less floppy unlike the more modern ones.

The headgear should not be so garish as to detract from the rest of the attire.

[OC Richard]

...the paler fawns and 'stone' shades of tweed with conventional clan tartans now seem to be less popular. And so the Semple illustrations seem now seem quaintly old-fashioned.

Yes it's interesting that most of the Semple illustrations show stone, fawn, and pale grey. Lovat blue and Lovat green appear but often a bit more pale.

And it's not just those illustrations, there are colour photos from Highland Games in the 1950s and 1960s showing the same tweed colours.

For whatever reason by the 1960s and 1970s most of the jackets become Lovat Blue and Lovat Green, with Moss probably the third most-seen. I have a photo somewhere (I can't find it) of around 20 men at a Highland Games and all of them are wearing either Lovat Blue or Lovat Green.

I'll go with Moss and Fawn over the Lovats any day.

Most of the Highland Dress outfitters I see here in northern Scotland have their shop-windows display the latest trends - no doubt to attract the young gent getting kitted out for his wedding and the like. The current fashion is for all grey - which makes the whole outfit look as if it has been given a dunking in black dye - not enough to make eveything totally black, but close enough.

Yes kilt hire has gone through a Grey Scale fad which sadly isn't quite over yet. And its apparent replacement, an all-black fad.

perhaps we here a Xmarks should start a revivalist movement...

Yes! It's starting already.

[Janner52]

All of the jacket colours in the Semple illustrations look good. I tend to agree that the lighter colours look good and work better. I also like Lovat Green. The modern monochromatic colours used both for the kilt, jacket and hose take away the contrast between the kilt and accessories, which is what gives it its style.

The exception, in my view, is the navy blue which works well in a more dignified environment in place of the black Argyll with silver buttons. A garment of which I am not a fan. Especially as a pipe band uniform.

[jsrnephdoc]

Most of the Highland Dress outfitters I see here in northern Scotland have their shop-windows display the latest trends - no doubt to attract the young gent getting kitted out for his wedding and the like. The current fashion is for all grey - which makes the whole outfit look as if it has been given a dunking in black dye - not enough to make eveything totally black, but close enough.

When my sister, son, and I visited Scotland summer of 2023, I was surprised as well to see the prominence of those "grayscale" tartans in prestigious Edinburgh shop windows (including Nicolson and Kinloch Anderson). But, I thought some of them were rather attractive, and when I learned of the "Lunar" tartan (and Barb Tewksbury's modification of it, as well as the Scottish Registry of Tartans' apparent posture that anyone could register virtually anything, as long as they paid the fee), the other current and enduring trend (to encourage or at least tolerate symbolism to color choices in tartan design) drew me to that specific tartan, because the symbolism of the Lunar2 modification expressed some of what was great in the "American Experiment," i.e., "one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind."

But, if one is a "serial kilter," and grayscale is the only arrow in one's quiver, that's just sad, and, of course "just my opinion," too.

One of the recipients of a "Lunar 2" kilt from Barb Tewksbury is an astronaut who played Amazing Grace on the pipes on the International Space Station (available on YouTube). I'm told he HAS a kilt in "Lunar2." I have no idea whether the reason he was not kilted while piping 200 miles up has to do with with weight limitations for one's personal baggage on that VERY pricey airline, or perhaps the embarrassment that might derive from wearing it in zero gravity conditions.

And, color symbolism in tartan design is not unknown even in Scotland. Lochcarron weaves and Gordon Nicolson sells fabric in a registered and restricted "Nursing" tartan, where the colors match the colors in the nursing uniforms of those who toil for the Scottish National Health Service. I think that tartan is VERY attractive, and I'm trying to obtain a kilt made in it for my spouse, who is at LEAST as proud of her own service as a registered nurse as she is about her choice of spouse.

[OC Richard]

...the paler fawns and 'stone' shades of tweed with conventional clan tartans...

I thought of your comments just now watching this video from 1983, both men are wearing fawn/stone/beige tweed jackets, Seumas with matching fawn/stone hose (well shown at 4:05) showing that the Semple approach was still in effect at least with older gents at that time.

At 4:50 we can see that Iain is wearing hand-knit Arran hose, at the pinnacle of fashion at that time. Also note Iain's lovely brass-cantled brown Hunting Sporran (11:58) this being prior to the black & chrome Hunting Sporran becoming the standard piper's sporran the world over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvMP66X1dZs