Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
I think the 80's were chosen because that's when the rent-a-kilt business really took off... the kilted wedding business with the "cookie cutter" look, which soon became ubiquitous.

This also coincides with the publication, in 1979, of "So You're Going To Wear The Kilt" which did as much (in the opinion of many traditionalists) to dumb down Highland attire as it did to promote the wearing of the same.
Interesting food for thought there.

In the civilian Pipe Band world, change began in the 1970's, as far as I can determine.

As late as the 1960's bands were either wearing a civilian version of military Full Dress, or (stay with me here) one of the traditional modes of civilian Highland Dress: Day Dress or Evening Dress. Pipe band members in Evening Dress or Day Dress were, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from non-piping civilians in Highland Dress.

As far as I can see, in the 1970's pipe band dress began diverging from ordinary Highland Dress, first with the fad of wearing Prince Charlies with long neckties etc:



By the mid-1980's a new pipe band dress swept over the world, the black Argyll jacket/black Glengarry/white hose/ghillies look. All colour save for the kilt was banished (most bands wearing even black flashes).