What is Traditional Highland Dress?

[Jock Scot]

I find the hat discussion most interesting, but let me digress.

If in an imaginary world, the kilt existed when most Scots came to the New Worlds, and if Highland culture had survived the struggles of frontier life in a recognizable fashion, and if adaptations to Traditional Highland Dress were made to suit the New World climate, would they then be considered variant adaptations of Traditional Highland Dress? I rather think they might, as long as we rule out the wild costuming. Am I off topic?

Perhaps we would not wear jackets in hot weather. Perhaps we would have retained and adapted the mocasin-like footwear of the Highlands of yore. But what about hats (and dark glasses), both of which are useful adaptations to the much increased sunlight in the New World? Don't we need a new Highland wear hat for the weather in the Americas?

Let's start with the deerstalker; others have said it would serve. Can someone post pictures of Highland Dress with a "fore and aft" or deerstalker? I can't find any.

Failing that, I haven't been convinced that the Balmoral or Glengarry serve well, though the New Worlds have tried to make them work. One, it seems that they are either out-of-place or over-used as "Traditional Highland Dress". Two, they don't really serve as weather protection. I realize the following cap is considered paramillitary, but wonder if it isn't one of the more practical adapations while in the field? If not this, then what? Are we not to make adaptations for time and place appropriate for the New Worlds?

I don't think anyone here, even the most traditional of traditional thinkers have ever said that one could not adapt Highland attire to suit the weather conditions and you are quite correct in thinking that there are sometimes far better options than traditional Highland Scots head wear. Would that make the result traditional? Well no it would not, but so what. If the adaptation works then that is precisely what any sensible Scot would do in the circumstances.

On the hat topic I have long extolled the virtues of the Panama as perfect hot weather attire with the kilt . The Tilly hat and the Australian "slouch" hat also spring to mind. I venture to suggest that they may be a better option than the one you suggest. Each to their own.