1972 Fergus, Ontario postcard

[OC Richard]

The top photo in this collage is a postcard that's been sold for many years.

In cropped form it later came up for discussion in a Pipe Band forum where all the bands and people were identified.

I hunted around for images of around the same time showing the same bands and when possible the same people.

The 1972 photo's interest here on the Traditional Kilt Wear forum is that two of the bands are wearing traditional Highland Evening Dress. (Clan MacFarlane is also in traditional Evening Dress except for their slightly odd jackets.)

There is not a single item of their dress which isn't how any gent would dress for Evening from the 1920s up until Kilt Hire began eroding that form of dress starting c1980.

On the other hand, every item that we now associate with Pipe Band dress is absent, namely the Glengarry, Argyll jacket, black leather Hunting sporran with chrome top, plain hose, and Ghillie brogues. (Once again Clan MacFarlane's odd Argyll jackets are the exception.)

Some of you are now saying "but they're wearing bonnets and bonnets aren't part of Evening Dress!"

Yet but they're outdoors. If one of these gents went indoors in the Evening for Burns Supper etc he'd take his hat off, and be dressed in the same manner as all the other men at the function wearing traditional Evening Dress.

[Troglodyte]

You're absolutely right.

So much of what we now think of as right and correct in the way of categories and classifications, style and modes, was unknown a generation or so ago.

This image of competition dancers (I think it may be the Braemar Gathering) from the middle of the last century shows dancers (note all three are men) in what we might call evening dress, but what was expected at the time.



And note they, too, are wearing bonnets - but you still see that today.

[kiltedsawyer]

Richard, the picture I find interesting is the one in the lower left corner of the post card. I do not wish to make fun or criticize, but just noting that I have never seen a kilt as high waisted as the one the gentleman on the left is wearing. I've seen the picture of Jimmy Stewart in the high waisted trousers, and understand that even pants were worn higher 70 years ago, but I don't think I've ever seen a kilt worn in this manner. It appears to be at the correct length at the knee, but extends nearly to the man's armpits. Also it does not appear to be a military garment, so I am guessing just a personal style choice. So, the question is whether or not this is a unique personal choice or was this an accepted way of wearing the kilt? I'm certain that with a jacket and waistcoat it would appear not unlike the gentleman standing to his left.

Cheers,

David

[imrichmond]

Richard, the picture I find interesting is the one in the lower left corner of the post card. I do not wish to make fun or criticize, but just noting that I have never seen a kilt as high waisted as the one the gentleman on the left is wearing. I've seen the picture of Jimmy Stewart in the high waisted trousers, and understand that even pants were worn higher 70 years ago, but I don't think I've ever seen a kilt worn in this manner. It appears to be at the correct length at the knee, but extends nearly to the man's armpits. Also it does not appear to be a military garment, so I am guessing just a personal style choice. So, the question is whether or not this is a unique personal choice or was this an accepted way of wearing the kilt? I'm certain that with a jacket and waistcoat it would appear not unlike the gentleman standing to his left.

Cheers,

David

Since the two men in that photo were members of the grade 1 City of Toronto Pipe Band (the one on the right was the pipe major, I don't recognize the one on the left), it is likely that the kilt in question is a band-issued kilt rather than one tailored for the individual. Band kilts get passed around as members come and go and, while they are often altered for waist size, they are not normally altered for length. In most pipe bands, you get a kilt that is the closest, but not always the best, fit. Certainly, wearing a kilt that high above the waist was not usual in the 1970s, or even in the 1960s or 1950s.