Took the plunge

[Orvis]

Cognoscenti, I'll pass along a recommendation... I had a good experience purchsing a 1750's-style waistcoat and a banded-collar shirt from Folklore Fashions on ETSY

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FolkloreFa..._shop_redirect

Rosalind was good to work with and she made a few adaptions to her patterns to suit me. For example, she cut the shirt extra-long. She asked for measurements to tailor the waistcoat and shirt to me, personally. Now, she got the neck of the shirt very slightly tight, but it's a five minute job to move the buttons.

For hardcore re-neactors, her stuff will not do. It's machine-sewn...the buttonholes for example are machine-sewn. There are obvious machine-sewn hems. The buttons are plastic, not bone, wood or metal. On the waistcoat I ordered, it came with pocket flaps, but no actual pockets. The material is a nice medium-to-lightweight cotton, not wool.

For me, this is perfect. Her prices are half of what the "real" re-enactors stuff costs, like stuff from Jas Townsend. I'm going for the basic "look" not exact replicas. Considering that the other men in the guild will be wearing something that's not even vaguely period-correct, I figure that I'm ahead of the game already. I don't want to spend a mint on stuff that I'm going to wear to two events a year and Halloween. Besides, Pleasanton will be in the 90's this year. It's often 100+ degrees F. The last thing I want to wear is a full-on wool tartan period jacket. I thought about getting a sleeved waistcoat and figured I'd probably expire during the weekend if I did that.

OK, so with that...here's my question. See the lad on the far right?



That's more or less what I'm trying to achieve, minus the claymore, hair () jabot and cuffs. So gents, how do I get my 4-yard long, 60-inch wide plaid to belt around the hips like that? I know how to get it over my shoulder, but not how to do as illustrated here.

NOTE: I may just bail on the big plaid and wear my box-pleated 4-yard kilt.

Alan,

Glad you went to a seamstress to get a fairly accurate 1740's shirt. As a long-time reenactor (who now does a Jacobite impression), I can tell you that having machine-sewn seams on the shirt is no great sin, unless you feel like forking over mega-bucks for it. My linen shirts have machine-sewn seams - only the few seams that can be seen are hand-worked. As to the three gentlemen pictured, they look pretty good. The only things I would fine to criticize are the plaid brooch on the left fellow (didn't have men's brooches then), whereas the middle fellow is using a correct bodkin to secure his plaid. All three gentlemen are obviously wearing modern knitted hose - 1740's hose would have been made from cloth. You can learn how to do this - it's not hard. Also the fellow on the left has chains on the by-knives in his dirk scabbard - I've never seen a representation of this until the 19th c. Also, their waistcoats (with the "V" openings at the bottoms) are in a 1770's style - in the 1740's the waistcoat bottoms would have been straight. Just niggling, but you know reenactors - the average member of the visiting public won't have a clue!

As to putting on the plaid, it is probably best that you practice putting it on at home by spreading it on the floor and doing the pleating yourself. If your hips are large, the pleats don't have to overlap, thus giving you more to play with. If you plan to turn out often in your plaid, you can install drawstrings to enable you to put it on quickly standing up. When putting my plaid on at home, I use a full-length mirror to help me make any adjustments - or your wife can do that for you. But if you look like a walking laundry pile, that's okay, since original 18th c. Highlanders (except the gentry) probably looked that way more often than not. Also, original 18th c. Highlanders were reported to wear their plaids with the hemline high (like a mini-kilt), which is something not many do today. It doesn't leave much to the imagination.

[OC Richard]

Welcome to the world of re-enacting!

I've been at it (on and off) since I was a teenager.

I've done US Civil War, WWI, and WWII. But never 18th century.

It's very rewarding, for me anyway, that quest to get everything as "right" as you can get it.

See you in a few days! I'll try to drop by the historical encampment.

I'll be up there with the Long Beach Pipe Band.

[Alan H]

Welcome to the world of re-enacting!

I've been at it (on and off) since I was a teenager.

I've done US Civil War, WWI, and WWII. But never 18th century.

It's very rewarding, for me anyway, that quest to get everything as "right" as you can get it.

See you in a few days! I'll try to drop by the historical encampment.

I'll be up there with the Long Beach Pipe Band.

It'll be good to see you! Come on over and play for us!

I'm just doing this because I'm friends with the GuildMistress. She's the chairman for the Ardenwood Tartan Day Games, which I've been the athletic director for, for about 6 years now. I'm a bit old to compete in the 50-59's this year, so I figured I'd help her out. She's just glad to get another male in her encampment!

[grizzbass]

I love history and always feel a little tug when I see groups. looks good.

[figheadair]

No being a re-enactor but having once or twice been invoved in re-enactment events I'm curious as to why so many of those that choose to do Highland (Jacobite) era costume make such an historical faux pas a lot of the time. Go an visit any national re-enactment regiment (Britsh, French, German etc), the drive for historical accuracy is evident and the results generally very good. Not so with many Highland outfits.

I appreciate that because military clothing was regimented then there is a right and wrong type of this or that, colour of facing etc that means re-enactors have to try and emulate it o be correct. Highland clothes were not regulated in the same way but there are some things that are definitely wrong; plaid brooches, knitted hose etc., and not forgetting of course Jaobite shirts have all been mentioned. Why is it that we some often see rhings that are completely out of place? I guess some people will be following historically incorrect information, modern prints of historical costume/events are a prime source; others will no doubt do so because they use what the have/can afford (nothing wrong with that when starting out) and others I guess just don't care. Or am I being too harsh?

[Orvis]

Peter,

Having been in 18th c. reenacting since '89, I agree with most of what you said. For military units, there is usually some level of documentation available, but that varies. I had a very difficult time discovering the details for the 1757 1st Highland Battalion (later the 77th Foot, or Montgomery's Highlanders). For a unit that was as widely travelled in American as it was, there was precious little concerning the details of its dress. It turned out that there was a fire at Horse Guards in the late 18th c., and Lord Montgomerie told me (at a Scottish games) that any regimental records or artifacts that had been preserved at Eglington Castle had been destroyed in a 19th c. fire. So we had to rely on company order books and educated guesswork. And, we discovered, the uniform had been changed in 1759 by the Board of General Officers to include regimental lace. We had no idea what that looked like. So, we chose a look and stuck with it regardless of the period in the war we were portraying. The same held true for the 42nd RH Regt of the American War of Independence period. Records were scant and we learned that the ships carrying the 42nd between postings sank (on three separate occasions), taking all correspondence down with the ship. Then there was that pesky Horse Guards fire to cope with. So a lot of educated guesswork went into the creation of our uniforms. As to the plaids and philabegs, we were going on information that we could find, and that included a lot of the romantic mythology that came out in the 19th c. It took a long time to get right.

As to reenactors, my observations showed that there are generally three different types: First, there are the authenticity zealots (we called them "thread counters") who would settle for nothing less than maximum authenticity in dress, conduct, and all other aspects of portraying the unit. Secondly, there were those who did some research but had limited financial resources and whose goal was to get appearance and conduct "good enough." Last, there was the reenactor who was just out to have fun at a weekend and would turn out with minimum authenticity - mostly they would just do what they were told. I fell in between the first and second category. As I got more books and was exposed to research (such as yours), I slowly moved toward the first category.

As to Jacobite Highlander reenactors, I maintain that all three categories exist, but it's mostly due to younger guys with families not having sufficient financial resources to lay out on such things as custom repros of 18th c. tartan, swords, dirks, and other things. Mostly it's the older guys who can do that, and I have. My group has a very nice library of research material and we use it. For example, we discourage the use of any identifiable clan tartan, post 18th-century weapons, and we research the cut of our clothing pretty closely. Also (unlike military portrayals), we are not locked into a "uniform" appearance. So we can appear as everything from gentlemen of the clan with the full panoply to clan humblies wearing nothing but a ragged shirt and a dirty plaid carrying a "sickle on a stick." The same applies to our ladies. If we have a fault, it is that most of our members tend to attend events dressed too finely, when the opposite was probably true. There are probably some things we do wrong (not enough Gaelic, for example), but we correct things as we learn. Most of our events are at local Scottish games, so one thing we try to do is demolish the romantic myths and educate people (which results in interesting conversations with guys who swear that their clan has worn this tartan since Julius Caesar invaded Britain), so we welcome a variety of "looks" and try to keep things simple for the visiting public.

[Luke MacGillie]

Peter,

Having been in 18th c. reenacting since '89, I agree with most of what you said. For military units, there is usually some level of documentation available, but that varies. I had a very difficult time discovering the details for the 1757 1st Highland Battalion (later the 77th Foot, or Montgomery's Highlanders). For a unit that was as widely travelled in American as it was, there was precious little concerning the details of its dress. It turned out that there was a fire at Horse Guards in the late 18th c., and Lord Montgomerie told me (at a Scottish games) that any regimental records or artifacts that had been preserved at Eglington Castle had been destroyed in a 19th c. fire. So we had to rely on company order books and educated guesswork. And, we discovered, the uniform had been changed in 1759 by the Board of General Officers to include regimental lace. We had no idea what that looked like. So, we chose a look and stuck with it regardless of the period in the war we were portraying. The same held true for the 42nd RH Regt of the American War of Independence period. Records were scant and we learned that the ships carrying the 42nd between postings sank (on three separate occasions), taking all correspondence down with the ship. Then there was that pesky Horse Guards fire to cope with. So a lot of educated guesswork went into the creation of our uniforms. As to the plaids and philabegs, we were going on information that we could find, and that included a lot of the romantic mythology that came out in the 19th c. It took a long time to get right.

As to reenactors, my observations showed that there are generally three different types: First, there are the authenticity zealots (we called them "thread counters") who would settle for nothing less than maximum authenticity in dress, conduct, and all other aspects of portraying the unit. Secondly, there were those who did some research but had limited financial resources and whose goal was to get appearance and conduct "good enough." Last, there was the reenactor who was just out to have fun at a weekend and would turn out with minimum authenticity - mostly they would just do what they were told. I fell in between the first and second category. As I got more books and was exposed to research (such as yours), I slowly moved toward the first category.

As to Jacobite Highlander reenactors, I maintain that all three categories exist, but it's mostly due to younger guys with families not having sufficient financial resources to lay out on such things as custom repros of 18th c. tartan, swords, dirks, and other things. Mostly it's the older guys who can do that, and I have. My group has a very nice library of research material and we use it. For example, we discourage the use of any identifiable clan tartan, post 18th-century weapons, and we research the cut of our clothing pretty closely. Also (unlike military portrayals), we are not locked into a "uniform" appearance. So we can appear as everything from gentlemen of the clan with the full panoply to clan humblies wearing nothing but a ragged shirt and a dirty plaid carrying a "sickle on a stick." The same applies to our ladies. If we have a fault, it is that most of our members tend to attend events dressed too finely, when the opposite was probably true. There are probably some things we do wrong (not enough Gaelic, for example), but we correct things as we learn. Most of our events are at local Scottish games, so one thing we try to do is demolish the romantic myths and educate people (which results in interesting conversations with guys who swear that their clan has worn this tartan since Julius Caesar invaded Britain), so we welcome a variety of "looks" and try to keep things simple for the visiting public.

I hate to disagree with you a little bit, but there are tons of unexploited resources when it comes to the F&I Highland regiments. Montgomerie's actual papers are in the Library of Congress and I was just gifted copies of a couple of those documents that has information regarding the number of yards of tartan per man, what type of selvage that tartan had, what the tartan was, regimental shoe and stock buckles, that the regiment had purpose made garters, not just cut off pieces of wool twill tape and a bunch of other stuff. That information has been sitting right there yards, ok a few miles from where we have lived off an on, and we never knew it :-)

I still have to get to London to access the Lloyds of London archive to see the 42nd Officers clothing book and the 78th regimental papers, but Im not going to have to travel to Manchester as I found out there is a copy of Murray's correspondence in Montreal.

The internet, I love it!

[OC Richard]

I'm curious as to why so many of those that choose to do Highland (Jacobite) era costume make such an historical faux pas a lot of the time... there are some things that are definitely wrong; plaid brooches, knitted hose etc., and not forgetting of course Jaobite shirts have all been mentioned. Why is it that we some often see things that are completely out of place? I guess some people will be following historically incorrect information, modern prints of historical costume/events are a prime source; others will no doubt do so because they use what the have/can afford (nothing wrong with that when starting out) and others I guess just don't care. Or am I being too harsh?

I've often had to bite my tongue in fear of giving offence but yes this sort of thing very common with Highland reenactors of any period, of people doing Highland costume in general.

As I've said before, it's as if Highland costume, in the minds of many, floats in its own world disconnected from time.

Countless times I've seen the very people who do their homework and make sure everything in their costume is period-correct throw all that out the window when they do a Highland costume.

A pet peeve of mine is people incorrectly doing the uniform of the 79th New York State Militia in the American Civil War. For whatever reason they freely mix elements of the 79th NY's post-war uniform with elements of the 79th Foot of Scotland from various periods. Neither uniform corresponds to anything the 79th NY would have worn during the Civil War. There's no excuse for this because clear photos showing the uniform exist, and more than that a near-complete pre-war uniform exists which has been widely photographed (in the Gettysburg museum).

One will see all sorts of anachronisms such as wearing blue hackles, wearing kilt aprons, spats, the wrong hose, wrong sporrans, wrongly pleated kilts, wrong cap badges, on and on it goes.

Much of the problem is that the uniform of the 79th NY has been incorrectly illustrated in a number of books on Civil War uniform, and photographs of existing post-war uniforms in museums have been included in such books. (The pre-war and post-war uniforms were different in almost every detail.)

Getting away from that specific case, one sees anachronisms all the time, people freely mixing Victorian, modern, and quasi-18th century bits in their Scottish costumes.

BTW I never buy the "I can't afford it" excuse for inaccuracy, because in most cases it can be shown that the inaccurate thing they're wearing cost just as much as an accurate thing.

Two more reenacting peeves of mine (while I'm on a roll) are 1) wearing modern eyeglasses and 2) musicians playing modern instruments.

Period-correct eyeglass frames are far cheaper than modern ones. I've picked up a number of original frames from the 1920s and 1930s on Ebay for as little as $6 each. The person wearing $150 modern frames telling you they can't afford historical accuracy is simply not telling the truth.

About instruments, there was a guy playing modern-style Highland pipes with his otherwise correct early Highland costume. He told me he couldn't afford a period-correct pipe. The pipes he was playing were top-notch vintage pipes, made around 1900 as I recall, worth $5,000 or so. He could have bought a reproduction of mid-18th century pipes by a very good maker for $1,500. Once again the "I can't afford it" plea was bogus.

[Ben Pierce]

Good lookin crew! Are the kilted Lebowskis related to the little lebowski urban achievers??

[Alan H]

Alan,

Glad you went to a seamstress to get a fairly accurate 1740's shirt. As a long-time reenactor (who now does a Jacobite impression), I can tell you that having machine-sewn seams on the shirt is no great sin, unless you feel like forking over mega-bucks for it. My linen shirts have machine-sewn seams - only the few seams that can be seen are hand-worked. As to the three gentlemen pictured, they look pretty good. The only things I would fine to criticize are the plaid brooch on the left fellow (didn't have men's brooches then), whereas the middle fellow is using a correct bodkin to secure his plaid. All three gentlemen are obviously wearing modern knitted hose - 1740's hose would have been made from cloth. You can learn how to do this - it's not hard.

A few years ago I found some "tartan" (it's not a twill weave) semi-stretchy wool. It's actually a wool/acrylic mix with some elastic sewn in. I made myself a pair of cadadh from the stuff. So now I need to find some knitted ties to wrap around the upper part. I just tried on the cadadh and the thin inner socks I wear with them, with my uber-cheap chinese-made buckle brogues. Well, it's a bit tight over the instep, but it'll do.

Also the fellow on the left has chains on the by-knives in his dirk scabbard - I've never seen a representation of this until the 19th c. Also, their waistcoats (with the "V" openings at the bottoms) are in a 1770's style - in the 1740's the waistcoat bottoms would have been straight. Just niggling, but you know reenactors - the average member of the visiting public won't have a clue!

The waistcoat I've got is V'd at the bottom. Honest truth is that I'll probably open up the cutaway a bit more when I have time. It's flopping all over the sporran right now. However, for this weekend, it's going to be fine.

As to putting on the plaid, it is probably best that you practice putting it on at home by spreading it on the floor and doing the pleating yourself. If your hips are large, the pleats don't have to overlap, thus giving you more to play with. If you plan to turn out often in your plaid, you can install drawstrings to enable you to put it on quickly standing up.

I have a 4 1/2 yard plaid and I've cheated by sewing in about 10 pleats in the back! It'll need a touch of ironing, I'm afraid. When I chose the pattern I tried to be careful about the colors. You can see a picture of it, and me "in theory" doing a "late 1500's" Guild a few years ago here:



Never mind the "dirk" / "dagger". It's the only edged weapon I had, having won it at a Games a few years ago. It's quite pretty and has nothing whatsoever to do with Scotland!
Anyway, I know how to fold/put on the plaid, just not sure how to get it tucked in around my hips.

The When putting my plaid on at home, I use a full-length mirror to help me make any adjustments - or your wife can do that for you. But if you look like a walking laundry pile, that's okay, since original 18th c. Highlanders (except the gentry) probably looked that way more often than not. Also, original 18th c. Highlanders were reported to wear their plaids with the hemline high (like a mini-kilt), which is something not many do today. It doesn't leave much to the imagination.

I'm a bit modest for that! LOL