traditional vs. classic

[OC Richard]

In highland apparel and style, what is truly classic and what is traditional? Are they the same or different?

What are the sources and influences of your concept of classic?

Great questions! Because I've discovered that over the years, as my sources have broadened, I've had to reevaluate some of my concepts.

My first source was a catalogue from a Highland Dress outfitter which I got around 1974. Ooooh how I gazed at those B&W photos of all the different styles of sporrans, different types of jackets (Montrose, Regulation, tweed day, and many more), and all the old-fashioned types of kilt pins etc etc.

At that time 'casual kilts' and all the neo-Celtic and neo-Culloden etc etc stuff didn't exist and the 'traditional' modes of Highland Dress held sway: Day Dress, Evening Dress, and military-style dress each with its proprietary shoes, hose, sporran, jacket, and headgear. It just didn't do to mix things up!

I followed suit and had several Highland Dress outfits which respected those traditional modes:





I got really into Highland Dress and got every book I could on the subject including such classics as Old Irish and Highland Dress etc.

Then... all of my preconceptions about the "right" and the "wrong" about Highland Dress were blown away when I got a copy of The Highlanders of Scotland, fifty-odd extremely detailed portraits of men in Highland Dress painted in the 1860's. Highland Dress had so much more vitality, variety, and plasticity then! How dull and monollithic our modern dress looks by comparison!



More recently I've begun collecting a large number of vintage (c1860 to c1930) photos of men in Highland Dress. These, combined with The Highlanders of Scotland, made me realise that the set-in-stone Modes of Highland Dress that I came to know in the 1970's didn't really exist until, it seems, after WWI.







In the end my current "eye" for what's traditional/classic is formed by those four influences: "tradtitional Highland Dress" as it was known in the 1970's, books on the history of Highland Dress, The Highlanders of Scotland, and vintage photos.