The original kilt style?

[Salvianus]

I can only add my thanks.

When I compare the lengths people like Penelope Walton Rogers have to go to in order to extrapolate 5th century clothing ensembles based on the position of two or three fragmentary brooches which sometimes preserve a chemical residue giving an impression of a weave - to have potentially important artefacts like this still extant but undocumented is astonishing!

That a garment which would actually fail some modern definitions of the kilt was credibly associated with a Scottish earl (whether true or not) is almost as noteworthy.

Your work continues to evidence considerable diversity in the early forms of an everyday practical garment that is today so often regarded as precisely defined, expensive formal costume, every aspect of the wearing of which is by rights prescribed by a style manual.

Folk-songs aren't opera, and I love them all the more for it. Here's to the folk-kilt!

[Elf]

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The apron is shaded/narrowed by having the pleats sewn at the hip, again just at the top rather than being sewn down.

Please excuse me for comming back to this comment, and allow me to ask for clarification. Does this narrowing appear to be an attempt to form the "A-line" shaping to the apron? It also reminds me of a kilt worn by a re-enactor friend who's apron is pleated. Those pleats are very shallow with only the intention of making the apron look narrower "as in an older style", while actually being the full width of a modern kilt. Your kilt is the first "older style" example to possibly substantiate this. So to be plain: how wide is the apron as a whole?

[MacBean]

The first thing that came to mind on looking at this kilt, was why pleat it at all? It was then that I became aware of just how useful pleats are. Imagine trying to run about in a tight skirt!

[figheadair]

Please excuse me for comming back to this comment, and allow me to ask for clarification. Does this narrowing appear to be an attempt to form the "A-line" shaping to the apron? It also reminds me of a kilt worn by a re-enactor friend who's apron is pleated. Those pleats are very shallow with only the intention of making the apron look narrower "as in an older style", while actually being the full width of a modern kilt. Your kilt is the first "older style" example to possibly substantiate this. So to be plain: how wide is the apron as a whole?

Here's the first picture again. It is an overview of the outside followed by one of the interior.





Unfortunately I didn't measure the aprons separately but will do that when I next get an opportunity to see the kilt.

Looking at the two images it's clear that the pleating is not evenly distributed nor balanced as is normal. Here the pleats begin about half way across the outer apron which means that if worn like this then the front apron would not have covered the full width of the torso or the pleats would have gone part-way across the front. Curious indeed! I need to spend some time looking at the sewing and see if it's all contemporary or whether some of the pleating is of a different date. Looking at the hi-res images that I have it appears to be the former.