To me the wearing of a modern stitched "piper's plaid" looks strange and anachronistic with anything other than the military-style doublet for the simple reason that the modern stitched long plaid is a recent invention designed specifically to be worn with military-style doublets.
This change to the way long plaids are made, and look, far post-dates the early 20th century sea-change in civilian Highland Dress under which long plaids ceased to be worn with civilian Highland Dress.
It's like wearing a Victorian frock coat with camouflage pants- the two are from different centuries.
In the Victorian period long plaids were commonly worn in the military and by civilians, originally loosely draped around the body. In the army a trend started of wrapping them more tightly. This trend seems to have accelerated when civilians stopped wearing them.
The army used plaid brooches with the long plaids, the loosely-draped civilian long plaid was usually worn without brooch.
So if I were to wear a long plaid with civilian dress I would want the traditional original non-stitched kind, and loosely draped around the body. It would look like historic Highland Dress rather than traditional.
A Victorian civilian wearing a long plaid with an Argyll jacket
Here's a civilian wearing a long plaid with an Argyll jacket, but having the plaid tighter, and using a brooch
A looser style of wearing the long plaid
Loosely draped but with brooch
Victorian soldiers could wear the long plaid loosely too
Here is why they weren't called "piper's plaids"... because they were never exclusively worn by pipers either in the army or in the civilian world. Two officers of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders showing the typical rather haphazard way plaids were worn around the body
Something rare in Victorian military photos, a plaid pleated in a precise way
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