Quote Originally Posted by CMcG View Post
This is "the place to talk about Traditional and Classic Highland Apparel and Style," right? But what does that actually mean?

There is precedent for the discussions to centre around post-WWI civilian attire, though I haven't seen any written rule to that effect. There seem to me to be other types of traditional or classic Highland apparel and style that don't have another home on this site...

When anyone posts in this section about pipers, the military, pre-20th century dress, or contemporary style, they are usually chastised for being off-topic. It seems to me, however, that these are important aspects of Highland attire. At the very least they are important influences.

I'm not talking about fullest, uniform regalia; overblown, Romantic-era, historical attire; or modern, runway fashion, which might go more on the Historical or Modern sections of Xmarks. I mean situations where pipers are wearing outfits that are similar to what their kilted audience might wear. Or some types of mess dress that are also not so different from what civilians wear. Or historical attire that is very nearly the same as modern attire. Or contemporary variations on tradition that don't entirely break with convention.

I recognize that the nature of tradition is conservative but why can't there be room here for broader discussion of all aspects of Highland attire?
In other threads we have addressed the very important issue of the source of our traditions and the influence the Scots/Canadian/Anzac military has had on Highland civilian dress of today. The experts among us (and the many more who are not in this forum) generally agree that what we wear and how we wear it in the 21C is largely attributable to our British military tradition. Those same experts are not, however, in any sort of agreement on how much credance should be given to the "overblown" and "romantic" image of the 19C and its influence on today's manner of dress.

In those other threads we have discussed the difference in attitude and opinion of folk who live Highland culture on a daily basis -- and in so doing absorb its history and its manners through constant exposure, those who visit the culture periodiocally and read voluminously, and those who pick and choose from the myths and snatches of historical fact out there in the wild world.

Each of us must accept where we are in that milieu and look to others to teach from their perspective and place in all of this. The only "right" of tradition, surely, is how Highland dress is worn in the Highlands of Scotland today. Not how it is worn by any individual in Canberra or Saskatoon or Christchurch or Dallas or Atlanta or Oslo or Rome or London -- or, with great respect and some hesitancy, Dumfries or Aberdeen. Not, either, how it is worn by a competition pipe band from any one of those places.

CMcG's point needs to be well taken for discussion, but it needs to be considered not in terms of traditional attire, but only in regards to the manner in which Highland dress is changing in parts of the world outwith the Highlands as it is adopted and adapted in those parts. It is altering at home as a result of international product market pressures and its own internal evolution. That change is crucial to this discussion but is separate from it.

We must be cautious of the tail's great desire to wag the dog.