origins of the right-hand fringe

[OC Richard]

It's an interesting question, and it makes me want to go through my Victorian photos and see.

Peter would know, but I've long thought that it looked like the belted plaid had bound edges; no fraying, no fringe.



For sure if I were re-creating that costume I would bind the edges to approximate that look, even if originally it was got by other means.

There's one early image, I can't remember now, where some artist depicts a garment somewhere between the ancient Irish brat and the Highland breacan-an-fheilidh, with fur trim bound all around the edges. After all, that's what the belted plaid was, the ancient Gaelic "mantle" wrapped round the body. In Ireland fur trim on the mantle was standard, but at some point it disappeared from its Highland descendant.