FIDM Museum c1900 Highland outfit

[OC Richard]

Here in Greater Los Angeles we have the wonderful Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing, or FIDM.

Its museum is most famous for having an exhibit each year of the costumes of all the films which received Academy Award Nominations for Best Costume. It's an amazing thing to see the costumes up close!

They have numerous items of vintage and historical clothing including this Highland outfit, purchased from Scotch House, London, sometime shortly after 1900.

https://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/scotch-house/

It's really cool as it shows the sort of all-tweed outfit so often seen in vintage photos.

I would quibble with the shirt and tie, which look too modern to me, and also with the sporran, which I would think probably dates to around 1920-1930.

Striped hose are often seen in Victorian photos of men in Highland Dress.

Of course the kilt is shown worn far too low.

Here's a crop of the photo.



On closer inspection the sporran is definitely later. The cantle is a quite common pattern AFAIK sold in the 1930s and 1940s, cast in solid German Silver, the ones I've seen somewhat crudely executed. They made crossbelt buckles, waistbelt buckles, and cantles in that pattern.

I can't find a photo of that sporran cantle at the moment, I know I have (or had) one.

But here's the matching crossbelt hardware. That cantle is usually seen on long horsehair sporrans, for Pipe Band use.