Question Regarding Traditional Dress

As a (Canadian) player of Irish/Scottisch fiddle, I have always been intrigued by Scottish tradition. Recently as I was running an errand, I happened upon small collector’s shop which sold a variety of genuine articles of Scottish and Irish traditional dress. There I treated myself to a bonnie tam-o’-shanter, in blue plaid with a navy toorie. It is a charm, a little dream come true. I wanted to put it on immediately as I left the shop, but then suddenly I had misgivings.

Do you think it would be disrespectful of Scottish culture to wear a cap traditionally worn by Scottish males if I am neither Scottish nor male? Or do you think it would be an acceptable way to express my love for Scottish traditions, even as a non-Scot?

On the one hand, I feel it is acceptable, since it is an authentic article crafted for sale by actual Scottish weavers, and accessible to anyone who might wish to wear one and show support for their art and love of their culture. It is not as though I have bought a costume piece, which would have (in my opinion) been an utter travesty to any tradition; that is to say, I’m not wearing it merely to *look* Scottish but to *feel“ Scottish, and to support traditional Scottish crafts, if you understand. On the other hand, I wonder if wearing a traditional article as a ”non-member“ of the tradition, or on any non-traditional occasion, would ”normalize" it and belittle its value as something particular to only a certain people and culture.

I would be very sad if I could not wear my tam-o’-shanter anywhere--at the same time I do not want to do the wrong thing…

As long as you don the kilt as well, you’ll be grand 🙂

A couple of drams, and a half bottle of Buckie……. then you don’t care what you’re wearing 😉

Seriously though, I don’t think Cultural appropriation applies to us Scots…
Go for it!!

I had to Google what a tam o’shanter hat looked like, because living in Scotland for ten years, I had no idea, and I can’t say I have ever noticed anyone wearing one. The gamekeepers we walked past in Glen Affric last year, who were as straight out of Central Casting as anyone I’d ever seen, wore tweed flat caps. Them and the Finnieston hipsters.

You’re really over-thinking this - and you’re about two hundred years too late. If there was ever a battle about this, it was lost that long ago.

Ever see girls doing Highland dance? Did you not notice that they are garbed in a stylized version of the dress of Highland warriors? Doesn’t seem to bother anybody. So - wear your tam-o’-shanter like crazy.

Btw, I can’t recall a time when it would have surprised me to see a woman on the street wearing some kind of tam-o’-shanter. Except in the dog days of August, maybe.

“I had to Google what a tam o’shanter hat looked like, because living in Scotland for ten years, I had no idea…”

In ten years living in Scotland you’ve never seen a soldier?

Here are hundreds of tam o’shanters. In the military the term is so common they use an acronym (TOS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74lI--OF7hM

play video

Now about the idea of wearing a special costume for playing traditional music, this varies from tradition to tradition.

The Mexican Mariachi, the Bulgarian wedding piper, the Scottish Highland piper are all expected to appear at a gig in costume.

I have seen the Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser play many times and he’s always been in Highland Dress, with kilt and kilt-hose and sporran and such. The first time I saw him play, back in the early 80s, he was wearing full Highland Dress with an Argyll jacket etc.

We had a couple Cape Breton fiddlers visit here (California) and they wore plain trousers and tartan waistcoats.

The founder of The Scottish Fiddlers Of Los Angeles (at the time of its founding the only Strathspey & Reel Society outwith Scotland) the Scot and superb fiddler Colin Gordon always appeared in kilt, tweed Argyll jacket, etc (and his invariable Deerstalker tweed cap). He had a Scottish dance band which performed kilted.

So yes at least with Scottish fiddlers the concept of wearing Highland Dress when performing is common enough.

Might it be perceived as costume-y by some? Of course.

For sure many/most Scottish folk-groups (take Silly Wizard for example) performed in ordinary clothes.

I’ve seen as many military parades as I have seen tam‘o’shanters.

Greetings Bluestocking and all!

I don’t have an Internet address for them but check out The Borderers, a very clever and talented band.

Their usage of kilts sometimes doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination

All the best
Brian x

How about the “blue plaid”? I was told my blue and green plaid woollen shirt was OK. But as I was told this in the context of Black Watch tartan being acceptable on Englishman I was not much wiser as to whether, or where, not people cared about these things.

With a very few exceptions, anyone can wear what they like. Some like to claim that only those associated with a clan can wear its tartan. However the idea of clan tartans was invented by Sir Walter Scott, and besides the tourist industry doesn’t want to lose the opportunity to sell Scottish regalia to all those tourists without a Scottish background. Nevertheless some (but not all) Scots take it very seriously, so it is probably safest to wear one of the universal patterns if you want to avoid any risk of giving offence.

https://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/tartan-pattern-book/what-tartan-can-i-wear/

“the idea of clan tartans was invented by Sir Walter Scott”

True that the concept got a boost due to King George’s visit to Scotland in 1822.

However the groundwork was laid in the 18th century with the military tartans of regiments with clan connexions, the tartans of the Black Watch and Seaforth Highlanders having clan Campbell and clan MacKenzie connexions respectively, and the tartans of the Gordon Highlanders and Cameron Highlanders being connected with those clans.

So during the preparations for the Royal visit some clans already had tartans, leaving the others to scramble for theirs. Wilsons of Bannockburn re-branded some of their existing numbered tartans with clan names to cater to the sudden market for clan tartans, as I understand.

Even more bizarre was when the Allen brothers stepped in, taking it upon themselves to invent dozens of tartans which they claimed to have come from an ancient manuscript. When people demanded that they produce the manuscript they did so- literally.

As far as OP goes - wear what you like. There are no “rules” that matter. Of course, if you were to dress up like a Scottish Christmas tree you could reasonably expect a certain amount of sniggering, but if the cap fits, wear it.

And what is ‘Trad Irish dress’?
Old 1940’s baggy/ worn out style suit with a rolled up newspaper in the jacket pocket, flat cap, white shirt buttoned up but no tie?

That’s the women sorted, YH. Now what about the men?

Thank you to all for your answers! It’s good to hear buying the Scotch bonnet was not a mistake.

@ Howard Jones--my tam-o’-shanter is of Holyrood tartan pattern; from what I can gather from the Internet, it is based on, but not identical to, an existing pattern associated with some Royal house. Hence, seems safe even in the worst case scenario. Thank you for the suggestion.

@ Gonzo--curly wig, stiff bodice, circle skirt. When dancing, at least.

you’ll be fine, wear a grand-dad shirt and a leather skirt with it.

Brilliant reply, Bluestocking.

Hah! All of these outfits are modern twaddle. As a true tradition bearer I always appear in public in cross-gartered braes and a saffron shirt. With a long woolen cloak in the colder months.

On a serious note, I rarely see Irish people wearing what is thought of as ‘typically Irish’ stuff in Ireland. (Bawneens, tweed caps etc..,). As I remember Scotland didn’t have many people wearing kilts either, though I’d say lots of people have one in the back of a wardrobe for burns night or weddings.

But no-ones really going to make a fuss over someone wearing a hat, or a sweater. Go all out, (full highland getup, I dunno, brown suit and hobnailed boots) and the worst you’ll get is a label as an eccentric.

When we set up a Scottish ceilidh band we decided on a “uniform” of white shirt, black trousers and no tie. I had seen another band dressed like that and thought it smart. It turned out they were all in the polis!

Naught will do but cauthic!

… so … is that your clan slogan??

Speaking (perhaps out of turn) as an Englishman, I think most Scots would find it charming (if a touch eccentric) that you love their culture so much as to want to wear the traditional garb. If your aim was to mock the culture, that would be another matter entirely - but that is clearly not your intention.

🙂 I’d say you’re fine with a classic See You Jimmy, ideally in the rare blue tartan:
https://tinyurl.com/SeeYouJimmy011

Or maybe a Balmoral/Kilmarnock:
https://tinyurl.com/Kilmarnock-Balmoral

But unless you’re Canadian, don’t be wearing one of these to a session, unless you’re willing to risk cultural appropriation 🙂
https://tinyurl.com/Cdn-Hat-01111
or
https://tinyurl.com/Cdn-Hat2

Picking up on a few random remarks here:
“Scotch Bonnet” is a particularly fiery capsicum-type pepper: wear it on your head if you wish, but don’t let the juice run into your eyes!

If you’re going to copy George IV’s attire, remember the pink tights! (Yes, really!)

Englishmen wearing the kilt: my husband refuses to, even though we’ve lived in Scotland for over 30 years: but he does look good in his tartan trews!

Ceilidh bands: our “uniform” in one of the bands I play in is also tartan trews (any tartan you like or have family claim to) to go with shirt and gilet with band logo.

For the benefit of those who wondered what “cauthic” is, I found the information below. It defeated my Google-Fu at first, with the same name as a Hindu holiday and Google insisting I was trying to say “gothic”. Thanks to postie above for increasing my knowledge of weird Irish custom. From the following source:
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4649694/4647905/4660115?ChapterID=4649694&NameKey=thomas-gallagher&LangID=ga

“It was in this house that Dermody O Duignan was born and reared. Dermody was a great harper, and a peculiar character. He never dressed, I believe, in ordinary clothes. He wore a suit of cauthic, and a head-dress of the same material. Cauthic was the name given to dried and beaten or pounded rushes, or to the suit made from them. I’m not sure if he always wore this material or if it was only for the special occasion which I am going to tell you about.”

@ trish--I know what a Scotch bonnet is. That was exactly the joke. I guess this one didn’t land quite as well as the other.

Good catch Conical! Actually the first I heard of cauthic was in Charlotte Milligan Fox’s Annals of the Harpers.
The people living out on the Burren were reputed to wear it. Saw some sketches at one time, and was struck by how like it was to some of the clothing worn by some of the North Coast Amerindian tribes (for example the Haida, Kwakiutl, and S’Klallam) made from pounded Cedar bark.

Being that I play both the uilleann pipes and Highland pipes, and I play at quite a few weddings and funerals, the topic nearly always comes up as to what an uilleann piper should wear.

I know that nowadays most uilleann pipers appear in ordinary clothes- blue jeans (preferably torn and faded) and a t-shirt (preferably stained) - but this would have been considered unacceptable in the old days, when pipers invariably appeared well-dressed, in a suit, often with top hat or bowler.

Moreover their suits were often of an oldfashioned cut- there are references to suits “of the Irish cut” and in green wool. (I believe the cut being referenced is the cutaway or swallowtail coat, and with knee-breeches.)

These “Irish” suits were still being worn by pipers in the 1920s, though quite out of fashion then, in the world of ordinary clothes.

In any case people here in the USA think that when they’re hiring a “piper” the piper should appear in kilts. I do try to talk them out of that, when I’m to play uilleann pipes, and steer them toward either my Irish tweed outfit, or ordinary Concert Dress (black slacks and white or black dress shirt).

But the OP is talking about Scottish dress, and for sure it’s appropriate to wear Scottish things while performing Scottish fiddle. Many years ago I knew a Scottish fiddler and she would wear a quality lady’s kilt, in tartan wool, velvet waistcoat, and white ruffled blouse, when performing at dressy functions.

BTW here’s Alasdair Fraser performing in full Highland Dress… quite a guest list at this event!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpaKMsH60Jo

play video

Some very interesting comments here. I suspect that that because for a long time the Highland piping tradition was often closely associated with the British army, this strengthened the association between the music and a particular form of costume. This will have been strengthened by the fact the the GHB was often played at weddings, funerals and other ceremonial occasions where a formal appearance was expected. In fact, my own observations suggest that for non-musicians the appearance of the piper is far more important than the actual tunes played.

For other instruments I suspect that until fairly recently performers usually wore their everday clothes or suits/dresses if the occasion demanded it. A change came about when the fiddler James Scott Skinner made a point of performing in full Highland costume at his concerts, and the combination of kilt with formal evening wear continues (as with the example of Alasdair Fraser above). The great Jimmy Shand also mostly wore the kilt when performing, and many Scottish dance bands today wear tartan jackets or trews.

Regarding the OP, the original tam o’shanters seem to have been of one plain colour (usually black or blue) with a distinctive colour of toorie (usually red). TOS and bunnets in tartan seem to be a fairly recent innovation, but are nothing worse than some of the travesties of Highland costume that some Scottish football supporters have as getups …

However, I do find it bizarre that women and girls doing Highland dancing usually wear a kind of parody of male costume. I think they would look much better in dresses!

“I know that nowadays most uilleann pipers appear in ordinary clothes- blue jeans (preferably torn and faded) and a t-shirt (preferably stained)..”

I didn’t think we’ve ever encountered one another at a session, Richard, so you must be psychic!

“the GHB was often played at weddings, funerals and other ceremonial occasions where a formal appearance was expected… for non-musicians the appearance of the piper is far more important than the actual tunes played.”

For sure when somebody is hiring a piper they expect the whole show: the piper in costume marching about.

Beyond the matter of costume, having played hundreds of weddings and funerals I can assure you what tunes you play is usually unimportant. John Williams said that the most important part of composing music for a particular scene is getting the tempo right. For weddings oftentimes the piper functions as the event’s soundtrack, and what matters is not what tunes you play but how quickly or slowly you play them. (Witness the film score that uses the same melody for a calm scene and an exciting scene, but at different tempi.)

“I suspect that that because for a long time the Highland piping tradition was often closely associated with the British army, this strengthened the association between the music and a particular form of costume.”

Perhaps, but in fact the influence regarding costume went the other way, from civilian Highland Dress to the British army, especially regarding piper’s kit.

It started with the first Highland regiment, the Black Watch, whose uniform entirely consisted of the ordinary civilian Highland costume of the period (Scottish bonnet, belted plaid, sporran, hose, etc) including the Highland weapons (basket-hilted broadsword, dirk, all-metal Highland pistols) the only elements the British army added were the Regimentals (red coat) and musket.

The doublet was long worn in civilian Highland Dress before being adopted by pipers in the army, and later by all Highland soldiers.

Many of the regimental pipers in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries weren’t dressed in military uniform at all, but in the sort livery they would wear if employed by a member of the aristocracy. Various elements of these pipers’ costumes were eventually adopted into the army.

Ha-ha Bluestocking! (@Scotch Bonnet)
Let’s see if anyone catches up on the pink tights (as opposed to blue stockings!)

http://www.apcarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/I0029_Oliver-Plunket-Pipe-Band-Keady-1946-Tommy-Makem-front-third-from-right.png

On tartans, as a Wilson I knew we were one of the first commercial tartanmakers. And made sure we had one of our own.

Here in Cape Breton, there is a very active Polish church in a multicultural neighbourhood named Whitney Pier (‘the Pier’). A while ago they had their own tartan designed and made; you can get a kilt or other items made from it if you want. I was there for the ffical introduction: https://www.capebretonpost.com/news/local/cape-breton-polish-tartan-unveiled-5711/

When I grew up in Dundee (70s/80s) I absorbed an impression that you needed special qualifications to be allowed to wear a kilt - and apart from weddings and funerals, almost no one ever did. Now, I see a much more open attitude to it and not just from the tourist industry. Wear them with pride and joy in doing so - and, as a man, they are a great ice breaker and look good on almost everyone.

As an example of a relic of the first attitude, I was returning from a Judo club new years party here in Hamburg where I had been playing the pipes and was wearing a kilt. On the SBahn home, some belligerent Glaswegian g*t decided to take issue with the fact that I was disrespecting his (!) culture by wearing a kilt, without making any effort to even determine who I was. The rest of the passengers were astounded that I didn’t plaster his face all over the carriage, but I _am_ a pacifist. I did manage to project enough disapproval that his companions rather nervously herded him out of the train at the next stop… This was about ten years ago and the lout in question would probably have tried to start a fight about anything. That is the only case I have encountered in the last twenty years and he was obviously an ex pat at the time too. I think rugby matches and the rise of Scottish national self-confidence in the last couple of decades have done a great deal to remove any chips on shoulders about the kilt.

And by extension, any other aspects of traditional Scottish dress…

Another anecdote - about five years after moving to Germany I was back in Dundee for a wedding and we all went out in our kilts around the same pubs that had been my regular stamping ground before. I got more propositions that night than in any previous year! If only I had known years before that the Dundee lassies liked the kilt too, but at the time I did not realise this due to the attitudes with which I grew up…

And you earn double busking with the pipes if you are wearing a kilt too.

“And you earn double busking with the pipes if you are wearing a kilt too.”

You mean people will pay you to stop playing AND to put some trousers on? 😉

I seem to remember David Coulthard and Colin McRae turning up at an international awards ceremony wearing dinner jacket and jeans, because they had been told the kilt wasn’t appropriate as they were representing Britain not Scotland. Mind you, it might have been because the organizers had heard that at a previous event McRae used his sgian-dubh to cut the boxer shorts off someone who was wearing the kilt incorrectly.

https://youtu.be/4yw0bLHTOb0

play video

“I got more propositions that night than in any previous year!”

Yes, with some guys, it’s ‘anything in a skirt’!

--“Might it be perceived as costume-y by some? Of course.”--

Of course, many musicians might dress differently to perform than they would on the street, so any performance clothing could be considered “costume-y.”

And, few Scots wear the kilt as an everyday thing anyway, as they’ll point out to you over on XMarksTheScot forum. So even on Scottish musicians it might be sort of costume-y-- just that some would argue they have the “right” to wear the “costume.”


--“With a very few exceptions, anyone can wear what they like. Some like to claim that only those associated with a clan can wear its tartan. However the idea of clan tartans was invented by Sir Walter Scott, and besides the tourist industry doesn’t want to lose the opportunity to sell Scottish regalia to all those tourists without a Scottish background. Nevertheless some (but not all) Scots take it very seriously, so it is probably safest to wear one of the universal patterns if you want to avoid any risk of giving offence.”--
And, of course, not all clans in all regions had a tartan anyway, but that’s not gonna stop the marketing, either!


--“However, I do find it bizarre that women and girls doing Highland dancing usually wear a kind of parody of male costume. I think they would look much better in dresses!”--
So did the Aboyne Highland Games. The kilt is much nicer and doesn’t make you look like a cupcake-- which is an especially-silly look if you’re over the age of about 13.


Now, of course, OP, your other question is whether as a woman you can wear this, but as a woman who wears a full kilt (dance or pipe band), ghillie brogues with it if I’ve got ’em, and sporran and sgian dubh, I may have a bias.

Thank you to everyone for all your contributions. I might not say much, but I do appreciate it!

I once saw this young man and his girl strolling along a street in Glasgow on a late August evening. He was dressed in a loose fitting grey aran type sweater and a very casual well-worn red & green kilt. They were half steamed and happy as hell too, and I think that this was probably the first time I saw the kilt worn in such an everyday situation. It was, and still is, one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Philip Larkin’s “…. how their lives would all contain this hour…” from The Whitsun Weddings comes to mind here as I wonder where on earth, or in Glasgow, are they now.