group photo c1900

[OC Richard]

This photo is up on Ebay currently, I really need to have it for my collection!



I love photos from the period when Highland Dress was in the process of transformation between the Highland Dress of the mid-to-late 19th century (so well documented in The Highlanders Of Scotland) to our Traditional Highland Dress which fully arrived at its modern form in the decade following World War One.

The Prince Charlie, Montrose, Kenmore etc had yet to appear so it's doublets for all. (One or two men might be wearing the dress Argyll, the only other Evening Dress jacket popular in the c1850-c1920 period.)

Also the small sealskin Evening Sporrans which appeared in the 1920s are yet to be seen and it's still long hair Evening sporrans for all.

One interesting aspect of the Highland Dress around the turn of the century was the short-lived fad for piped and laced doublets. Especially with laced doublets though a couple appear in The Highlanders Of Scotland and in photos of that time but around 1900 they became common, only to become quite out of fashion by the end of WWI.

Here one can see the turn-of-the-century fad for white neckwear (bow ties or jabots) and the beginnings of the deaccessorisation of Evening Dress which was to culminate in the 1920s. Only two pipers are still wearing sword belts. Yet it's plaids for everyone.

Of course it's tartan or diced hose for all- the wearing of selfcoloured Day hose in Evening Dress had to wait till the Kilt Hire fad of the 1970s.

Here's a photo dated 1909. The man on the left has a fully laced doublet with piped waistcoat while the man on the right has a piped doublet with laced waistcoat. The man to centre is wearing a rather plain Evening Argyll with low-cut Evening waistcoat which seems to be piped.

[figheadair]

Here one can see the turn-of-the-century fad for white neckwear (bow ties or jabots) and the beginnings of the deaccessorisation of Evening Dress which was to culminate in the 1920s.

And an early, and short-lived appearance of a tartan tie with dress jackets.

[Jock Scot]

The buildings behind the dancers look decidedly un-Scottish to me. Thin thatched roofs like the two centre and left of the picture(as we look at it)would not last five minutes in Scotland. A film set perhaps?

[tripleblessed]

Threads like this are one of the reasons I so thoroughly enjoy this forum. I wouldn't even know where to begin to find this type of evidence, and wouldn't understand very well what I was
seeing without the insight and knowledge of others here.

Thanks for your interest, your time, and your willingness to share.

[12stones]

What a great photograph. Do you have the winning bid?

[OC Richard]

And an early, and short-lived appearance of a tartan tie with dress jackets.

Ha!

That would make a little project for me, to bring together all the photos of men wearing tartan ties with kilts from Victorian times onward.

[OC Richard]

The buildings behind the dancers look decidedly un-Scottish to me...A film set perhaps?

You're quite right, it's all fake.

Here's another photo of it with caption: