What is Traditional Highland Dress?

[Jock Scot]

Deer Stalkers and the Fore & Aft are quite acceptable for informal kilt wear still. Although not a common sight with the kilt here. If I should wear the kilt on the moor whilst grouse shooting or fishing(neither of those pastimes is it wise to wear the kilt!) I would wear a Deer Stalker,or Fore & Aft.

[ThistleDown]

As Jock and Matt have said, the flat cap issue referred to is exclusively an XMTS one and was got up and going as a way to take the michael out of a certain Lochaber-man.

The baseball cap has now been reduced to "ballcap" has it? May I suggest that that moves it somewhat closer to being accepted as tradtional US attire I'm not that familiar with its history, but it seems to me that the primary intent to keep the sun from one's eyes and less important purposes related to warmth and dryness indicates its origine in the summer sun or the southern part of your country.

The utility of the flat cap is the reverse: warmth and dryness first, eye protection somewhat after, and I suspect that it had its origin in England among the labouring classes, migrating north into Scotland with the industrial revolution. Certainly its fashionable wearing by the landed classes in either country (and Wales and Ireland) was very, very brief and gone with that class's reduction by 1918 or so.

The issue is not whether the flat cap is traditional to Highland dress, therefore, because it is not. Nor is it current fashion with Highland dress in the Highlands today. It is periodically seen, but at some sort of gut level we just know it to be a no-no at worst and a private style thing at best. I suppose a bit like wearing a ballcap with a suit.

As Jock says, the deerstalker and fore-and-aft are different kettles. They have been worn with Highland dress for long, long years and may just be approaching the "welcome to tradition" level of acknowledgement. Mind you, we know where and when they are appropriate, too.

Rex

[Zardoz]

I think Matt was on the ball that there are always going to be regional differences in how the kilt is worn or accessorized.

I find the Deerstalker and Flatcap posts somewhat telling in this regard. Because while (like it or not) flatcaps are frequently worn with the kilt here in the US without incident, I do not think I've ever seen a deerstalker worn here in any context except as part of costumes by somebody dressed as Sherlock Holmes. That includes actual stalking. But it seems the deerstalker is still just fine for country daywear in the UK.
So both of those late Victorian/Edwardian headgear fashion "fads" seem to still have their fans, just in different plarts of the world.

Since I generally tend to agree with them on most stuff, I feel it's a shame that many "traditionalists" don't seem to have any flexibility. On one hand you recognize that the some accessories with Highlandwear might have been OK as a 'fad' or trend at one time, but you won't consider the idea that the trends might come back around.

[MacBean]

I've not seen many people in kilts except last year in Inverness at a Clan Celebration, so I know little about tradition. The folk I met were congenial and hospitable; we had a wonderful time, so I am inclined towards adopting Traditional Highland Dress when wearing a kilt.

That said, the artist in me recognizes the importance of looking forward, of modernisms, and I rather like some of the stylistic innovations around the kilt and its related incumbrances.

Then again, my various Scottish ancestors left the home country in the 1600s and 1700s, so I suppose I could adopt an anachronistic style in recognition of those times.

So what is the ordinary American to do? We do a bit of each of the above of course, resulting in the usual American cacophonous mess. And oddly, I see that too as not so different from wearing various cacophonous tartans and leathers and not caring too much. Perhaps somewhere in here we have found a core Scottish quality beyond tradition?

[artificer]

The baseball cap has now been reduced to "ballcap" has it? May I suggest that that moves it somewhat closer to being accepted as tradtional US attire ...
Rex

You, good sir, may suggest anything that you like. I, for one, would take great issue with that suggestion. It's 'tradition' is that of ball-parks, truck (lorry) drivers*, and a certain baggy-pant-ill-mannered set. I'm not the most formal of men (I try never to wear more than a linen shirt and shorts. I'm slowly trying to phase the shorts out for the kilt, but that's taking some work), but I draw the line at my **** hanging out of my pants as if I were wearing my father's trousers, or some giant, foam-fronted, cap.

*No offense intended for those whose profession is to shift everything we need in life around on our roads, my uncle drove for almost 20 years... but you must admit, drivers aren't usually the most 'stylish'.

[ThistleDown]

You, good sir, may suggest anything that you like. I, for one, would take great issue with that suggestion. It's 'tradition' is that of ball-parks, truck (lorry) drivers*, and a certain baggy-pant-ill-mannered set. I'm not the most formal of men (I try never to wear more than a linen shirt and shorts. I'm slowly trying to phase the shorts out for the kilt, but that's taking some work), but I draw the line at my **** hanging out of my pants as if I were wearing my father's trousers, or some giant, foam-fronted, cap.

*No offense intended for those whose profession is to shift everything we need in life around on our roads, my uncle drove for almost 20 years... but you must admit, drivers aren't usually the most 'stylish'.

No? You reject the idea that a bit of head gear could be adopted as traditional -- a symbol for a nation -- because it is a fashion among some folk in another nation? Or is it because it looks culturally inappropriate when worn with a suit?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Being traditionally dressed is as much about knowing what is not appropriate attire, as it is about knowing what is appropriate attire. Unfortunately the "appropriate" line gets blurred by many in North America, and there is usually a weak attempt to justify that blurring on the grounds of distance in time or space from Scotland. The most shallow of all arguments, it seems to me, is that one which goes something like "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want." Not only does this line of protest seem to display an ignorance of what are the accepted standards in the wearing of what has become the Scottish mode of national dress, but its hollow arrogance seems to be as largely based on insecurity as much as it is a lack of social understanding.

[Jock Scot]

Being traditionally dressed is as much about knowing what is not appropriate attire, as it is about knowing what is appropriate attire. Unfortunately the "appropriate" line gets blurred by many in North America, and there is usually a weak attempt to justify that blurring on the grounds of distance in time or space from Scotland. The most shallow of all arguments, it seems to me, is that one which goes something like "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want." Not only does this line of protest seem to display an ignorance of what are the accepted standards in the wearing of what has become the Scottish mode of national dress, but its hollow arrogance seems to be as largely based on insecurity as much as it is a lack of social understanding.

Yes absolutely!

[ThistleDown]

Being traditionally dressed is as much about knowing what is not appropriate attire, as it is about knowing what is appropriate attire. Unfortunately the "appropriate" line gets blurred by many in North America, and there is usually a weak attempt to justify that blurring on the grounds of distance in time or space from Scotland. The most shallow of all arguments, it seems to me, is that one which goes something like "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want." Not only does this line of protest seem to display an ignorance of what are the accepted standards in the wearing of what has become the Scottish mode of national dress, but its hollow arrogance seems to be as largely based on insecurity as much as it is a lack of social understanding.

Thank you, Rathdown.

[MacBean]

Being traditionally dressed is as much about knowing what is not appropriate attire, as it is about knowing what is appropriate attire. Unfortunately the "appropriate" line gets blurred by many in North America, and there is usually a weak attempt to justify that blurring on the grounds of distance in time or space from Scotland. The most shallow of all arguments, it seems to me, is that one which goes something like "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want." Not only does this line of protest seem to display an ignorance of what are the accepted standards in the wearing of what has become the Scottish mode of national dress, but its hollow arrogance seems to be as largely based on insecurity as much as it is a lack of social understanding.

Perhaps I misunderstood; please correct me (I often do misconstrue)?

Do Americans actually "usually blur the lines between appropriate and inappropriate traditional dress and attire"?

If you have heard something like, "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want", does that mean the person in question was trying for traditional attire? I think that would be strange.

Does someone wearing what they want imply that they (and many folk here on this forum) display hollow arrogance, insecurity, and lack of social understanding?

Frankly, I'm shocked and disappointed. I have been quite careful to follow the traditional highland dress esthetic and custom, but why would I want to anymore? If I lose friends over this, well so be it.