HOS revisited: 1860s Day Dress

[OC Richard]

I'll point out one thing that many miss from these portraits -- and that is that these gentlemen are all quite clearly wearing box pleated kilts!

I noticed that too! On most of the kilts it's quite clear that they were boxpleated. On a few, it's hard to distinguish the pleating.

About the jackets, note that most are quite plain. Some have simple round cuffs without buttons. The pointed "Atholl Highlanders" cuff makes an appearance. Even many of the black jackets worn with full finery have plain buttons and plain cuffs.

Yes flashes aren't common: 40 of the 56 kilted figures lack them.

Other things to note: the bottom button of waistcoats is always buttoned (though one or more top buttons may be unbuttoned), no belts are peaking out from under waistcoats, and no sporrans like our modern "day" and "evening" sporrans existed at that time.

[Bugbear]

Box pleat kilts in 1860? I'm confused again.

[Dall_Piobaire]

Thanks once again Richard. These protraits are fantastic. I once though they were pretty idealized, but now I see they really are a compendium of everything. If I am not mistaken this book is hard to get now, so the effort you make to scan and post is much appreciated. Now if only I could really see the darn things!!!

Silly thing, but I have noticed that it seems the cap badges are right around over the eye, for the most part anyway. I thought cap badges were more of a modern thing as well. Are there many/any with plant badges, or was that primarily a field of battle thing?
Is this the the only such in depth text of it's kind?

[Slowburn]

I like the one set of house that appears to be red heart heads. All excellent examples of period dress. One question that still nags is are these everyday where or posed costume to represent the height of fashion?

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Box pleat kilts in 1860? I'm confused again.

Nothing confusing about it. Box pleats were the original style for tailored kilts (beginning in the 1790s) and remained the common style for much of the nineteenth century. The first military regiment to make the switch to knife pleats were the Gordon Highlanders in 1854. It took a while after that for the knife pleated fashion to really catch on.

[xman]

I'll point out one thing that many miss from these portraits -- and that is that these gentlemen are all quite clearly wearing box pleated kilts!

And these would be 5yd models, yes? It doesn't appear that any fabric was cut away in the fell since they have such volume behind. Looks toasty warm.

[MacRobert's Reply]

I notice very few kilt pins. No blanket-pin types but circular or oval. One apparently a clan badge with strap and buckle.

BTW the the MacLeay prints are at:
http://www.tartansauthority.com/reso...leay-portraits

[Bugbear]

Nothing confusing about it. Box pleats were the original style for tailored kilts (beginning in the 1790s) and remained the common style for much of the nineteenth century. The first military regiment to make the switch to knife pleats were the Gordon Highlanders in 1854. It took a while after that for the knife pleated fashion to really catch on.

Ok, thanks, the time line was just a little scrambled in my mind, and it startled me. I think I'm going to have to disregard a few assertions that are commonly made on the forum, though.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

And these would be 5yd models, yes? It doesn't appear that any fabric was cut away in the fell since they have such volume behind. Looks toasty warm.

Judging from the width of the pleats (and the size of the setts) yes, I'd say these were probably made from around 5 yards of cloth on average. And no, they would not have had any cloth cut out from the fell.

[OC Richard]

Just the question I was going to pose to Matt! That is, could he estimate the amount of yardage. The pleats are smaller than on Matt's 4-yard boxpleated kilts, but larger than on 20th century military 8-yard boxpleated kilts.

About kilt pins, here are the numbers:

34 of the 56 kilted figures have that part of the kilt visible.

Of those, only 6 have kilt pins. None are like our 20th century sword or sword & targe etc styles or blanket pin style. They are:

2 open circles
1 open oval
1 like a clan crest cap badge
1 a clan crest without the surrounding circle
1 complex design

One kilt has rosettes.

About cap badges:

25 Glengarries with visible badge
22 Balmorals with visible badge
1 Glengarry lacking badge or cockade
3 Balmorals without badge

About getting hold of a copy of the book, I bought one for $100 when the present edition first came out. Around a year ago one came up on Ebay for around $20 and I got it. I couldn't let it get away that cheaply. So I have two