Ghillie brogues, yes or no?

[DWFII]

Scotus is quite right. What is seen as "costumey" or, if you will, "Brigadooney" in both places is anything that is a deliberate attempt to dress in another era.

I'm not so sure...of course I'm not a costume historian but to me, ghillie brogues are "neither one thing nor the other," if you see what I mean. And neither one period nor the other, either. And it is that aspect that makes me less than fond of them

The "ghillie" (if that's a proper terminology for the tongueless, heel-less, laced shoe we see in old paintings) dates back...well, time out of mind. But it is surely that look and that shoe that the modern ghillie brogue is seeking to emulate. So in a sense, by the definition quoted above it does partake of that "costumey" or "Brigadoonish" image.

Now then, I've not researched this extensively, but from what I know at this moment in time, "broguing" was not used much before the late 19th or early 20th century. It may have even been unknown until quite recently in the 9000 year history of shoemaking.

So here you have a shoe that is clearly a carry-over from a much earlier period; a shoe that, except among those seeking to deliberately dress in another era, has no currency in the greater world; and some johnny-come-lately, post modern, shoemaker decides to "gussie" it up with gimping and broguing. Voila!! the modern ghillie brogue.

I don't know about how uncomfortable the current lacing conventions are with the ghillie brogue...although in the few 19th century paintings I've seen that lacing doesn't seem to be evident. To my eye the lacing is not the problem...maybe a little "affected" (in the sense of "costume") but no more so than jabots or even sgian dubhs, come to that. But the old ghillies or a plainer version of the modern shoe would look a lot less like a "costume" without the gimping and broguing if only because without it a good part of the pretense goes missing.

And not to get too far afield...doesn't almost all aspects of kilt attire fall into that category of deliberately trying to dress in another era? What article of the kilt kit could cross over to be worn with more conventional western dress? The hose perhaps with a pair of shorts...but the kilt itself, the sporran, even the Argyll jacket, being cut way short belong distinctively to another time and place. Especially if we take it as gospel that most Native Scots don't wear the kilt even on special occasions.

Returning to ghillie brogues, I fault them precisely because from a shoemaker's point of view they aren't period enough--they are too much like a wrist watch in a movie about the Crusades; or heels on shoes in any movie/book that is set prior to the late 16th century. The broguing and gimping are that wrist watch.