What is Traditional Highland Dress?

[ali8780]

I think what is difficult for some on this continent to come to grips with is the level of Scottish pride that comes with the kilt. We outwith of Scotland, at least here in the U.S., don't have a "national attire" which generates as much emotion as the Kilt does for Scots. We compare it, emotionally, with Levis and can't understand what all of the fuss is about. We equate their emotional stance about how it should be worn to us telling them how they should wear their jeans.

Instead, as I am gleaning from the emotional replies from my new friends in Scotland, perhaps we here should equate it with how another country treats our flag. For many Scots, the kilt is not just a garment, it's a national symbol and treating it with anything but the utmost respect is experienced as a slight against their national pride, not just a fashion failure.

When I visualize the American flag being chopped up, turned into nic nacs, worn as casual clothing, especially in countries other than my own, I have a much different response than when I see someone wearing Levis in a way I would not choose to wear them (bleached, purposely torn or stained etc)

Through that lens I see a much different picture.

Am I gaining on it?

Brooke

Thank you for this-- I was pondering a similar vein of thought myself as I was reading through this thread.

[Brian K]

I personally feel that knowledge of social customs is less an indicator of a person's status as a gentleman than the way he acts!

Lyle,

I tend, in the main, to agree with you here. While there can be certain advantages to being able to negotiate the pitfalls of social convention and custom, there have been many I have known who are always impeccably turned out and who can always be certain of using the correct implement in the correct manner at table, but who I would not trust with my wallet or anything else of value or importance.

My two favorite definitions of a gentleman (and i suppose they would also define a lady):

"A gentleman is one who never offends anyone unintentionally."

"A gentleman treats others without regards to his interests."

To mix and paraphrase the two, I would suppose that a gentleman strives continually to make sure that all persons are comfortable in his presence whether or not those persons are able to help or hinder him in anything he desires to accomplish.

To assume that someone who is always and everywhere is properly dressed and who has a thorough knowledge of social conventions is a gentleman is a mistake as much as assuming that someone who is poorly dressed and possessed of lower class manners is not. The ultimate test of a gentleman (or a lady) is how he (or she) treats others.

Regards,

Brian

[macwilkin]

Lyle,

I tend, in the main, to agree with you here. While there can be certain advantages to being able to negotiate the pitfalls of social convention and custom, there have been many I have known who are always impeccably turned out and who can always be certain of using the correct implement in the correct manner at table, but who I would not trust with my wallet or anything else of value or importance.

My two favorite definitions of a gentleman (and i suppose they would also define a lady):

"A gentleman is one who never offends anyone unintentionally."

"A gentleman treats others without regards to his interests."

To mix and paraphrase the two, I would suppose that a gentleman strives continually to make sure that all persons are comfortable in his presence whether or not those persons are able to help or hinder him in anything he desires to accomplish.

To assume that someone who is always and everywhere is properly dressed and who has a thorough knowledge of social conventions is a gentleman is a mistake as much as assuming that someone who is poorly dressed and possessed of lower class manners is not. The ultimate test of a gentleman (or a lady) is how he (or she) treats others.

Regards,

Brian

I've always thought this poem sums up what being a gentleman is quite nicely:

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/int/lredgod.html

T.

[Brian K]

I've always thought this poem sums up what being a gentleman is quite nicely:

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/int/lredgod.html

T.

I like it, Todd. Thanks.

[ThistleDown]

I think what is difficult for some on this continent to come to grips with is the level of Scottish pride that comes with the kilt. We outwith of Scotland, at least here in the U.S., don't have a "national attire" which generates as much emotion as the Kilt does for Scots. We compare it, emotionally, with Levis and can't understand what all of the fuss is about. We equate their emotional stance about how it should be worn to us telling them how they should wear their jeans.

Instead, as I am gleaning from the emotional replies from my new friends in Scotland, perhaps we here should equate it with how another country treats our flag. For many Scots, the kilt is not just a garment, it's a national symbol and treating it with anything but the utmost respect is experienced as a slight against their national pride, not just a fashion failure.

When I visualize the American flag being chopped up, turned into nic nacs, worn as casual clothing, especially in countries other than my own, I have a much different response than when I see someone wearing Levis in a way I would not choose to wear them (bleached, purposely torn or stained etc)

Through that lens I see a much different picture.

Am I gaining on it?

Brooke

Yes, Brooke, you are. It's not all about the kilt, though, it is about "Traditional Highland (Civilian) Dress".

I brought into the discussion your own baseball cap (which, I am told, has evolved into a "ballcap" and now into just simply "the cap"). I asked if it is a traditional item of American attire, if wearing it backwards is a "fashion" and if wearing it backwards and indoors is a "personal style".

You have read what happened next.

There is no divergence of opinion comparable in Scotland on the subject of flat caps -- which, by the way, have evolved into "caps" for us. They are loved by most for their function, but they are not considered by any to be an item of traditional Highland civilian dress.

Traditional Civilian Highland Dress does not include flat caps or pith helmets (sorry, Jamie) or claymores or targes or deer-hide shoes or so-called Jacobite shirts or regimental ties or tiers of badges and medals.

What the Scots on this forum -- and those who understand our culture so very well despite not living in it -- strongly object to is being told that some fashion (read "flat caps" or anything else from the above list here, if you wish) is traditional Highland attire because it is popular and worn with the kilt in a region of America.

Sorry, but we own the tradition. We love that you want to borrow it and even adopt it as your own, but the tradition is that of the Highlands of Scotland and not subject to the whims of somebody from somewhere else. It has evolved over time and it will continue to do so. It may even adopt some fashions or features developed elsewhere in the world as it evolves (rubber soles for our brogues comes to mind .

So, Brooke, you are on the way for sure for sure. Using your analogy, let's say a number of folk in Scotland take the American flag, turn it upside down, stitch a big white saltire over the stars and fly it from a flag pole. It becomes the Scottish fashion to do that -- and to call it "Old Glory".

Is it a traditional American flag? Is it an American flag at all?

With passion (and great respect),

Rex

[Nick the DSM]

I'm enjoying this. Keep it up!

[Jock Scot]

I find the hat discussion most interesting, but let me digress.

If in an imaginary world, the kilt existed when most Scots came to the New Worlds, and if Highland culture had survived the struggles of frontier life in a recognizable fashion, and if adaptations to Traditional Highland Dress were made to suit the New World climate, would they then be considered variant adaptations of Traditional Highland Dress? I rather think they might, as long as we rule out the wild costuming. Am I off topic?

Perhaps we would not wear jackets in hot weather. Perhaps we would have retained and adapted the mocasin-like footwear of the Highlands of yore. But what about hats (and dark glasses), both of which are useful adaptations to the much increased sunlight in the New World? Don't we need a new Highland wear hat for the weather in the Americas?

Let's start with the deerstalker; others have said it would serve. Can someone post pictures of Highland Dress with a "fore and aft" or deerstalker? I can't find any.

Failing that, I haven't been convinced that the Balmoral or Glengarry serve well, though the New Worlds have tried to make them work. One, it seems that they are either out-of-place or over-used as "Traditional Highland Dress". Two, they don't really serve as weather protection. I realize the following cap is considered paramillitary, but wonder if it isn't one of the more practical adapations while in the field? If not this, then what? Are we not to make adaptations for time and place appropriate for the New Worlds?

I don't think anyone here, even the most traditional of traditional thinkers have ever said that one could not adapt Highland attire to suit the weather conditions and you are quite correct in thinking that there are sometimes far better options than traditional Highland Scots head wear. Would that make the result traditional? Well no it would not, but so what. If the adaptation works then that is precisely what any sensible Scot would do in the circumstances.

On the hat topic I have long extolled the virtues of the Panama as perfect hot weather attire with the kilt . The Tilly hat and the Australian "slouch" hat also spring to mind. I venture to suggest that they may be a better option than the one you suggest. Each to their own.

[macwilkin]

I don't think anyone here, even the most traditional of traditional thinkers have ever said that one could not adapt Highland attire to suit the weather conditions and you are quite correct in thinking that there are sometimes far better options than traditional Highland Scots head wear. Would that make the result traditional? Well no it would not, but so what. If the adaptation works then that is precisely what any sensible Scot would do in the circumstances.

On the hat topic I have long extolled the virtues of the Panama as perfect hot weather attire with the kilt . The Tilly hat and the Australian "slouch" hat also spring to mind. I venture to suggest that they may be a better option than the one you suggest. Each to there own.

The Highland regiments certainly did. Witness the Jocks wearing ANZAC style slouch hats in the Boer War.

T.

[ThistleDown]

LL Bean in the States sells a super hat they call, I think, Moose River. Good for both sun and rain protection.

[BoldHighlander]

The Highland regiments certainly did. Witness the Jocks wearing ANZAC style slouch hats in the Boer War.

T.

You beat me to it Todd!

The Highland Light Infantry on the march in the Boer War
(The Battle of Magersfontein, 11 Dec 1899):



Post-2nd Boer War image of Captain Arnold Statham Milne, Transvaal Scottish Volunteers, wearing the Scottish Horse-style slouch hat in 1906: