"Day plaid"?

[cavscout]

All very good questions and I look forward to Jocks response.

Notice in the photo also there are two other different wearing styles. One is the 2nd from the left. He appears to have a plaid of some sort pinned to his right shoulder but nothing across the chest.

The other is the 2nd from the right, in the distance, who appears to have a plaid wrapped around his torso like a sash.

I feel like the most likely method is that the plaid was pinned on the left shoulder and then wrapped around the back, under the right arm and flipped back over the right shoulder to hang down the back. (left diagram below) Dashed lines mean the plaid is behind the person.



I would imagine that securing the left end of the plaid by tucking it under the right arm would create too much bulk in the arm pit with so much wool intersecting there. (right diagram above)

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I have a question about the gentleman who is third from the left facing away from the camera. I assume this is a day plaid that he is wearing draped and not folded as as the other gents, with the longer part hanging over his right shoulder. I'm trying to figure out what is going on with the other end of the plaid. Is it just going across his chest, over the left shoulder and other end affixed somehow? Or is that other end going under his right armpit, coming up over the front of the right shoulder and held in place by the bulk of the longer end of the plaid hanging down? Or is the plaid going over the top of the right shoulder, under the right armpit and across the back to have the short end hanging over the top of the left shoulder? And now that I re-read that I'm not sure it makes sense or that I want to try any harder to make it any clearer!

Reading your descriptions, Jock, I have come to realize that people probably just threw these on however and would think it ridiculous that somebody would even question in what fashion it was hanging. I guess I and many others are so used to seeing piper's or drummer's plaids that are "fixed" in some fashion that these are novel, to me at least.

Just noticed the nice shine on all the brogues.

[Pleater]

The tall man in profile, closes to the camera has his plaid doubled over long ways - the fold at the back.

If he lifted up the top layer, brought it around his right side under the arm, then laid it over his right shoulder, from the back it would look like the man third from the left, and match the left hand diagram.

Possibly the end over the left shoulder is shuffled back so the fringe in front is up at the lower edge of the jacket, so as to give a good long length at the back.

Isn't it called Occam's razor - the simplest explaination is most like to be the right one?

I must try that and see how it works, it is getting cold enough now to wear my plaid to keep warm.

Not being restricted my knowledge or convention I have tended to wear my plaid as the weather dictated, mostly wound in an anticlockwise spiral to keep off the rain.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[JSFMACLJR]

The versitility of the plaid is clearly evident! Some go without; some (like my father in the photo) carry it slung over an arm; some wear it folded lengthwise like Campbell of Airds (who is talking with my father); some wear it looped around; others draped...so many ways!

[Jock Scot]

Cavscout.

If you look closely, there are five of those "fastenings" on the fellows in the picture-----look at the lapels. At a guess, they are entrance to the show badges.

As to the fellow with the wrap around plaid, it is too long ago to remember for sure if they had a fixing ,but I certainly don't remember seeing one and I am almost sure that there were none. I did not carry my plaid like that, so I did not learn how to do it that way. In hindsight I should have, as it would solve the "keeping it on the shoulder" problem. I do recall that the "wrap around "plaid was not as wide, half the width(?), as the "over the shoulder" version. I well remember noticing that, whilst sheltering under a tree during a storm at a show, too many years ago. I and a pretty young lady were nice and warm and dry, whilst the fellow we were with, was shivering and soaked with his thin "wrap around" thing!

[Garry Oak]

Ah, you are a traditionalist, Paul. I see that you're using the "inches" side of the ruler rather than the "millimeters" side.

I wouldn't throw the upper "stick" for the dog to retrieve; it looks quite beautiful.

{Edited to add that I responded to Paul.'s post #38 without advancing to the current page of this thread. My apologies to all. I'll hush; please carry on.}

[Paul]

Isn't the bottom one the item you throw for the dog to retrieve?

It's also what half of the houses in Glasgow are made out of

[beloitpiper]

My piper's plaid goes around my chest, but my day plaid just rests on my left shoulder, though it could be wrapped like in that old photo.

[cavscout]

I was questioning the portion surrounded in red here...

[Jock Scot]

Cavscout.

My I eyes are not that good! Were they ever? Thank you for marking the spot and I am sorry I did not spot what you meant. I was looking at the correct chap, at least! I am not sure what "that" is ,but if it was a fixing of some sort it would, by my basic anatomy, be placed at the top of the young man's arm and it would be no good there. No, to my tired eyes that is not a fixing. Some form of adornment, perhaps?

[thescot]

One thing for sure, I'd like to have one of those things in the cold weather. No wonder those guys carried them. Like Jock said, they were utilitarian.

I may have to seen about one of them for myself. 4 yards of discounted tartan is a lot cheaper than a good inverness cape!