Quote Originally Posted by Carlo View Post

With the ladies my guess would be that it is a fashion or souvenir photo with no care about anything else than how it looks.

Only my thoughts, might be totally wrong.

As davidlpope writes.
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I, too, am a bit grey about this aspect of Highland dress however I remember hearing this feather business elsewhere over the years.

Also, I agree that it could very well be one of those "everything plus the kitchen sink" souvenir photos...the kind that equals tourist tat. Scot land, if I am not mistaken, has been a tourist hotspot since the Victorian Highland Revival. No doubt that what we see on holiday or vacation to Scotland is sometimes the latest incarnation of that. Scotland's tourist industry (just like anywhere else's) has thrived on legends and pagentry intermixed with historically rooted customs and practises...just like anywhere else.

My guess is that some of these may be nice examples of vintage tourist tat...but I still like them.