My New Diced Balmoral

[PatrickHughes123]

Hey everyone, got this new diced Balmoral about 2 weeks ago.







What do you guys think? A traditional, old-style had but it is amazing and a classic. Now my hat selection for my kilt is finally complete.

[Father Bill]

Lookin’ good, laddy!

[OC Richard]

Yes that style has been around since the 18th century. It's the same bonnet that had more and more ostrich feather added to it and evolved into the Feather Bonnet.

It's perhaps one of the most persistent Highland Dress items. If you wear reproduction 18th century shoes or shirt or jacket with a kilt it looks like a historical costume, but that hat is still contemporary.

Here they are in 1780



(Note the fiddler holding the fiddle in the style that persisted in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.)

Also still in fashion, perhaps more so, is the earlier bonnet with plain border.

[PatrickHughes123]

Yes that style has been around since the 18th century. It's the same bonnet that had more and more ostrich feather added to it and evolved into the Feather Bonnet.

It's perhaps one of the most persistent Highland Dress items. If you wear reproduction 18th century shoes or shirt or jacket with a kilt it looks like a historical costume, but that hat is still contemporary.

Here they are in 1780



(Note the fiddler holding the fiddle in the style that persisted in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.)

Also still in fashion, perhaps more so, is the earlier bonnet with plain border.

OC Richard, I think you misunderstood me. I know it's contemporary, but compared to the most contemporary Highland wear such as utility kilts and all that, it is very traditional.

Today, you can have an orange Glengarry with blue/yellow/red dicing if you wanted. But that is not traditional, a black Glengarry with red/white/black dicing however, is.

[OC Richard]

It's just me, I use the term "traditional" in a specific way, which I probably borrowed from musicology.

Something is "traditional" if it is a currently used thing which goes back to an unknown origin by means of an unbroken lineage of transitional forms.

So a traditional thing is a contemporary thing, by definition. If it wasn't still extant/current/contemporary, it would be a historical thing. (In other words the lineage died out at some point in the past.)

It so happens that that particular style of bonnet, which AFAIK first appears in the second half of the 18th century, is still in production and is widely worn.

[ForresterModern]

Wonderful choice, truly traditional, and it will go with any level of highland dress or otherwise. And the dicing adds just a bit of flair, kinda like flashes with hose. Wear it with pride and in good health.