A bit of confusion

[Sir Didymous]

I have been noticing a trend at renfairs and the like, as well as on various websites. This trend is men wearing tartan sashes with their kilts or in some cases pants with moggans covering the lower half. In the case of the later, I assume it to be a matter of poorly researched costuming, but in the former it is showing up more and more. Correct me if I'm wrong (as I tend to be frequently), but aren't sashes considered women's attire?

[Chas]

Well, a piper's plaid and a drummer's plaid can look like sashes, but aren't. A flyplaid can look like a sash, but isn't. If it is worn with a kilt, I suppose it is meant to look like a great kilt.

But if it is worn with trousers, then it is definitely a sash and yes I too would consider it to be - shall we say 'ill advised'.

Regards

Chas

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Yes, sashes are women's attire. I think you see men at Ren Faires and Highland Games wearing them out of ignorance for the most part. They have seen images of pipers with full plaids over their shoulders, or men wearing historical dress, including the feilidh-mor with the tartan pinned at the shoulder, and they assume that a kilted man *must* have some sort of tartan over the shoulder. They find a tartan sash and assume it to be a smaller, less expensive option, and so go for it.

Many of these men are just starting out in Highland attire and will learn better through other people's example (or gentle correction). Of course, some at the Ren Faires are just wearing it as a part of their costume, which they want to look "Scottish" and so they throw a tartan sash on their shoulder and run with it. They may or may not have any actual interest in Highland dress, and so there may be no inclination to do better there...

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Those who do their research by watching Brigadoon will commit the occasional costuming faux pas.

[Zardoz]

Matt is pretty spot on. I see the sash thing a lot at faire, usually with Sportkilts. Sportkilt's website shows photos of guys wearing sashes like that with regular clothes and faire garb, so they may be partly to blame

[Sir Didymous]

I've seen their site, and they tend to promote the use of fly plaids for non-formal wear as well. Not a terrible look in my opinion, but definatly not the traditional usage.

[OC Richard]

My theory is that this really took off after Braveheart.

I was really surprised, and disappointed, that the costume designer for that movie didn't "do her homework" and find out how the old Great Kilt was constructed. Seems to me that she conflated images of the Great Kilt with images of the Little Kilt worn with a Long Plaid and concocted a bizarre hybrid mutant thing, a senseless garment that has some sort of sash/plaid thingy somehow emerging from the Little Kilt. My reaction upon first seeing this in the film was

Sadly this wacky mutant garment has gained traction and I see stuff like it at Ren Faires all the time now... not by the serious types, who do their research, but by the more "fringe" element.

And it's cropped up again in Brave.

[Jock Scot]

Those who do their research by watching Brigadoon will commit the occasional costuming faux pas.

[OC Richard]

On the other hand, it depends on what the OP means by "sash".

We don't have any clear images of Renaissance-period Highland Dress, and our earliest clear depiction is this one from 1660. As you can see the Great Kilt is a mass of fabric wrapped around the waist. There's no seperate plaid/sash:



Here as I recall is the next-oldest, from 1700, showing the Great Kilt more orderly, bunched around the rear and tied or pinned to the left shoulder:



Also from the same period is this portrait showing this mass of tartan fabric worn not as a kilt but as a large sashlike garment, called a plaid ("plade"), which could function as a cloak or sleeping bag:



This is probably what the OP is seeing. It's perfectly correct and historical as you can see.

[Sir Didymous]

Actually this is roughly what I'm refering to. http://sportkilt.com/product/1801/Sc...rish-Sash.html

Then this I feel is partly to blame. http://www.rustyzipper.com/shop.cfm?...=199232-A14603

And as to the horror known as the Braveheart kilt. http://www.kilts-n-stuff.com/kilts/ancient-kilts/#full

Terrifying isn't it?

I'm rather certain that the person responsible for the BH kilt was told that an early kilt required 9 yards of single width fabric and stopped there with the research. Thus she didn't take the time to cut the tartan at the half way point and sew it like the great kilt. Not that it matters since Wallace seems to have been about 300 years ahead of his time as it relates to fashion.