Spats

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Wow! May I ask where you got all these wonderments of spats? I only have a pair of black-buttoned white canvas spats.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a lot of old duffers like my uncles bought this sort of stuff. Being tight fisted gentlemen they never threw anything away because they thought spats might just make a come back in their lifetimes... how wrong they were! That said, I never threw them away because I thought they were cool. So I inherited my civilian spats... My canvas spats (ex-military) were bought at the Leith Army Store on Leith walk back in the '60s when they sold genuine army surplus stuff. Mine have square cut toes, although I am given to understand the the 42nd Reg't. spats had rounded toes... just a minute and I'll go look in a book... sorry, can't find my "Observers Book of Spats" so will leave it to the Spatz-Nazis to correct me if I'm wrong. The best place to look for this sort of thing is your local gun show and failing that, try the various militaria auctions (Wallis and Wallis, etc.) that abound on-line. If you don't want military spats, probably your best best is to contact one of the suppliers of pipe-band stuff and see if you can special order "civilian spats" (these are cut square at the top; military spats are cut higher in the back) in a special fabric, or colour. Hope that helps!

[Nervous Jock]

Mine have square cut toes, although I am given to understand the the 42nd Reg't. spats had rounded toes...

42nd had squared Spats the remainder of the Highland Regiments were round, as an aside I would prefer to be considered as Spatznaz rather than a Spats-Nazi.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

42nd had squared Spats the remainder of the Highland Regiments were round, as an aside I would prefer to be considered as Spatznaz rather than a Spats-Nazi.

Da!