pipe band uniform change.

[OC Richard]

The St. Thomas Episcopal School Pipe Band used to wear white

Yes all the bands now wearing black or navy or blue or green used to wear white. I've got video tapes of The Worlds in the 1990s where year after year EVERY band is wearing white hose. Seems that each year fewer bands are wearing white, but it can fluctuate, as some bands maintain two different colours and may be seen at one comp in white and another comp in another colour, in the same year.

I recenty got the DVDs of the 2010 Worlds Grade One Finals and I did find a tad more variety than was apparent on the live streaming. Even on the DVDs, black and the extremely dark navy blue on Glengarries, vests, bagcovers, and hose are often impossible to distinguish. (Many if not most bands aren't even aware than Glengarries come in the two colours, and there are few bands which don't have a mix of the two. They can often only be distinguished up close and in strong light.)

Anyhow, based on the Qualifiers I saw on live streaming and the Finals I have on DVD, here's what was worn in 2010 Worlds Grade One:

Of the 24 bands, all were wearing black or navy Glengarries except Bagad Cap Caval, who do not wear Highland Dress, and wear no hats.

Of the 23 kilted bands, the hose were: black/navy 12, white 7, mid-grey 2, ancient blue 1, charcoal 1. A couple of bands wearing white this year wore black last year.

The shirts: blue 13, white 7, grey 3. Auckland & District stood out by wearing sage/putty military shirts, fully badged, without vests. All the other bands wore vests. None wore jackets.

Vests/waistcoats: black or navy 21, deep royal blue 1, charcoal 1, Auckland alone not wearing vests.

Sporrans: typical pipe band sporrans (a black hunting sporran with chrome evening cantle) 10, grey seal evening dress 6, black leather evening-like 3, plain black leather day 3, black hunting 1. So, of the 23 kilted bands 17 wore black leather sporrans, six fur (seal).

All bagcovers were black or navy save for 1 Burgundy, 1 bottle green, 1 deep Royal Blue. (These three were overseas bands: all UK bands wore black or navy.)

About kilts, 16 of the 23 bands wore red tartans.

So to dress like the typical "big boy" a band would wear black/navy waistcoats, glens, bagcovers, and hose, light blue shirts, black leather sporrans, and red tartan kilts pleated to the line.