A new House of Edgar collection

[figheadair]

And if you really want to be antique you don't use elastic anyway let alone flashes but cloth ties made of the tartan. There seems to be quite a fashion these days for Jacobite style wear which personally I find quite appealing, but I think belted plaid is not for me!

Traditional garters were striped, not tartan. Here's a are a couple of 18th century pairs.

[Mike Horah]

Traditional garters were striped, not tartan. Here's a are a couple of 18th century pairs.

Good point sloppy wording on my part re-enactors gartaes are not tartan as you say

[OC Richard]

A quirky thing about the kit of the Scottish regiments is that while on the one hand they occasionally introduce new non-traditional (and sometimes downright hideous) things, while on the other hand they're a bastion of older traditions, things that predate our modern "traditional" Highland Dress (which emerged following World War One).

Striped flashes is one of those things, they survive in the pipers' kit in 4SCOTS (green) and Scots Guards (red).



The pipers of 4SCOTS



Pipe Major Scots Guards



About flashes colours and the wearing/not wearing of them, once again I find it helpful to turn to The Highlanders of Scotland, by far the largest corpus of mid-19th century colour portraits of men in Highland Dress.

While these portraits don't tell us much about modern "traditional Highland Dress" due to Highland Dress undergoing a major overhaul after they were painted, they do give us an in-colour overview of what was worn in the 1860s. (For B&W images showing all of the same things we have thousands of Victorian photos to look at.)

Interestingly wearing visible flashes wasn't all that popular. In The Highlanders of Scotland only 16 of the 56 kilted men have flashes showing. Just why wearing visible flashes became routine by the 1920s who can say.

Except for three striped flashes, all are plain red. Interestingly plain red flashes were worn by all the surviving kilted Scottish Highland regiments (excepting some pipers as mentioned above).

Two of the plain red flashes do have contrasting edging, one black, one white.

Four men in "day" tweed in The Highlanders of Scotland, no visible flashes, no kilt pins, no sginean, three of the four wearing ordinary brogues.

[geomick]

Here in Scotland the traditional way of thinking is, if anything of your kilt attire------apart from shoes------ is matching or not , then it is not something that we worry about too much. In fact some, most even, traditional kilt attire thinkers don't even give it a thought.

I am not sure where the idea of kilt attire matching came from, but the kilt hire companies and the newer kilt attire companies in general are, I think, responsible.

Maybe in part it is a side effect now of ordering from a website. I like "bottle green" so I keep ordering things in that color.

[SF Jeff]

Four men in "day" tweed in The Highlanders of Scotland, no visible flashes, no kilt pins, no sginean, three of the four wearing ordinary brogues.

Those are some serious sporrans. The hose on the gentleman second from left are interesting. The pattern looks like it could be a stag head and antlers. Or maybe just a laurel crest.

[Troglodyte]

Those are some serious sporrans. The hose on the gentleman second from left are interesting. The pattern looks like it could be a stag head and antlers. Or maybe just a laurel crest.

The hose feature a stag's head, as you have rightly noticed.

The lattice pattern of the hose is a version of the Gairloch that usually features two colours that are marled where the stag's head is placed, but additing the stag's head adds all kinds of conplications for the knitter.

The Gairloch pattern is complex enough, with its stitch numbers being recalulated according to shoe-size, and leg legnth and width, in order to keep where the pattern meets at the back both regular and even. Adding the stag's head might be done best as a secondary process in the form of a duplicate stitch, but there would be several hours' work in that alone.

Consiquently, no-one is willing to pay a commercial labour rate for approximately 40 to 50 hours' knitting work for a pair of hand-knit kilt hose of this style, and so they are nonviable.

But they're nice to see, just the same.

[ShaunMaxwell]

The hose feature a stag's head, as you have rightly noticed.

Consiquently, no-one is willing to pay a commercial labour rate for approximately 40 to 50 hours' knitting work for a pair of hand-knit kilt hose of this style, and so they are nonviable.

But they're nice to see, just the same.

They can be had, but they're very dear!

https://tartansocks.simdif.com/range-of-hose.html

Cheers,

SM

[Canadian Vet]

Those are some serious sporrans. The hose on the gentleman second from left are interesting. The pattern looks like it could be a stag head and antlers. Or maybe just a laurel crest.

Love the badger.
Here in North America that might be a Wolverine.

[jsrnephdoc]

Pipe Major Scots Guards

What impresses ME about the Pipe Major's attire is just HOW many weapons he wears.

On my first visit to Scotland, my first stop was the Edinburgh Castle Museum. One or two days before, I'd been to the Verdun WWI Memorial that SCREAMED its pacifistic message in the starkest possible terms. At the Edinburgh Castle, what amazed me was how strong the message was of "yes, we know them English have trampled on us over and over, but just give us one more chance with our Claymores, Dirks, and Sgian dubhs against their nukes and jets and we'll slaughter 'em all."

For someone who grew up listening to Harry Lauder instead of Elvis and the Beatles, the militancy of those exhibits REALLY surprised me.

Four men in "day" tweed in The Highlanders of Scotland, no visible flashes, no kilt pins, no sginean, three of the four wearing ordinary brogues.

Perhaps the question about flashes is one of "just how much is TOO much multicolor. Once one gets past the orthogonal kilt, the on-the-bias waistcoat, and the diced hose worn by the guy on the left, there's no ROOM left on the body for any additional patterning.

I'm being a bit too emphatic, of course, but I suspect that here in the USA, where many people have never even SEEN a kilt, the specter of one of those four at an event where the attendees are supposed to "look good" would be just "WAY too much—too many colors, too many patterns." I'm NOT suggesting it's "wrong," just not what Americans are accustomed to.

I've been wearing kilts now for about a decade, but my wife still trembles a bit when she knows I'm going to do so for an upcoming event. She has a stepbrother about to be married in rural Texas, I KNOW I'll be one of only 2 or 3 people NOT topped by a cowhand's Stetson and shod in cowboy boots. Likely, all with those endowed with Y chromosomes will all be wearing respectable suits in between, but before my wife would even consider letting me unleash a simple modern barathea jacket and vest from Kinloch Anderson above a tame Robertson ancient hunting tartan kilt I had to obtain enthusiastic "permission" from multiple relatives of the bride AND groom that they would not be offended. Let's face it: "matchy matchy" IS the American way of trying to look elegant or formal.

I do love the diced hose. I have none. My dad did, and pretty closely matched the "look" of the Clan Chieftain in photos at a couple clan gatherings in Pitlochry.

Maybe that's the one element of Highlands attire I should search for on eBay.

[ShaunMaxwell]

She has a stepbrother about to be married in rural Texas, I KNOW I'll be one of only 2 or 3 people NOT topped by a cowhand's Stetson and shod in cowboy boots.

I've seen plenty of kilts worn at weddings in Texas, though generally by the wedding party rather than the guests.

As for the diced hose, while you CAN find them on eBay, you'll pay less here:

https://www.jhiggins.net/hose-diced-...ose-hand-knit/


I have a couple of pair, but find that they rarely get worn, apart from the odd Burns Supper (and honestly, they're really too dressy for that!)

Cheers,

SM