Kilt appearance on "MacGyver" (by Henry Ian Cusick)

[Highland Logan]

Monochrome, a style that truely lacks any real substance, Scottish or otherwise.

One of my favorite quotes from the old "Scottish Clans and Their Tartans" is "... deprive the garb of its ornaments or reduce it to the drab monotony of Anglo-Saxon evening clothes are un-Scottish and*contemptible".

Multiple colours, the glint of shinny metal, textures of fur, hair or leather.

These are the things that set the Highland dress apart. It's best kept that way.

Frank

[Tomo]

Maybe monochrome has been with us for a tad longer...

[OC Richard]

Maybe monochrome has been with us for a tad longer...

That's a Hunting Stewart kilt.

For sure the Balmoral tartan is grey-tone, and John Brown appears to have an all-black mourning outfit.

However we have to keep in mind that a tartan reserved for the Royal Family, and a one-off mourning outfit, are hardly indicative of Highland Dress at any period, then or now.

Ah now we're onto something that was quite popular in Victorian times, an entire Highland suit made up of matching tweed. They're making something of a comeback now.

What these images also bring up is how evidently in Victorian times plain hose were nearly always grey or taupe, and tweed jackets were nearly always grey or brown.

Add to that, I read over and over, in writings about Highland Outdoor/Day Dress from around WWI up through the 1950s the opinion that plain hose should match the tweed jacket.

These factors working together are indeed going to create many men wearing grey jackets and hose. What there wasn't much of, until the 1990s, were all-grey tartans. There was Balmoral and the Allan Brothers' Douglas, created as a pun, evidently.

[McMurdo]

I agree that monochrome outfits are out there and have been for some time as evidenced by Tomo's post, I think it is important to remember just how much of fashion in the UK was influenced by the fact that Queen Victoria was in mourning from the death of Prince Albert in 1861 until her own death in 1901. The other thing I notice is that the MacLeay paintings are referenced again, which makes sense as they are one of the only colour examples we have. For everyone in a monochrome outfit though in the prints there is someone else who is wearing a colourful outfit, here are a few.













Also I will add a photo here of me in my Argyll and waistcoat from 1894 which is in a wonderful tweed the colour of which we just do not see any longer



I'm not sure how monochrome everything was or not but there is evidence for both sides.

[Jock Scot]

Monochrome, a style that truely lacks any real substance, Scottish or otherwise.

One of my favorite quotes from the old "Scottish Clans and Their Tartans" is "... deprive the garb of its ornaments or reduce it to the drab monotony of Anglo-Saxon evening clothes are un-Scottish and*contemptible".

Multiple colours, the glint of shinny metal, textures of fur, hair or leather.

These are the things that set the Highland dress apart. It's best kept that way.

Frank

Agreed. Although, there is a fine line between “good taste” and “brash caricatures”. It is difficult for some , particularly those new to kilt attire, to steer clear of that oh so critical and significant fine line.

For example, many newcomers to the world of the kilt find it difficult to differentiate between pipe band attire and civilian kilt attire. Another example, is the lack of understanding that aspects of the kilt hire industry do not follow traditional kilt attire thinking.