Why do we assume that everyone who had their picture painted a century or two ago was wearing the "proper" attire?
Because it is all we have, and we have formed a consensus opinion to accept that little bit of knowledge as "what was done". Not perfect, but what alternative do we have?
You're right of course. I just can't help but think that once in a while we get someone who was having his portrait done so he put on what he had.
Certainly this is the case as can readily be seen in the portrait of William Duff here seen on the right.
He is wearing what he has. There is no sporran and the jacket is a very long cut. This is a true highlander wearing his true highland dress and in some respects we would consider it 'wrong'.
I think it's also fair to say that highland gentlemen were influenced by the clothes worn by other highland gents and not some 'for hire' pictures he saw on teh intwebz. Our ability to get off track are as amplified now as is our opportunity to learn about both traditional and historical highland dress.
PS I wonder, does Wm Duff's waistcoat have a lapel? ...
Last edited by xman; 23rd February 11 at 09:56 AM.
Reason: GRAMMAR POLICE!
Why do we assume that everyone who had their picture painted a century or two ago was wearing the "proper" attire?
I don't suppose we can know what was considered "proper". All we can do is look at the imagry we have and draw what conclusions we can.
I have a huge number of vintage photographs, many from the same years that the portraits in The Highlanders Of Scotland were painted. They all agree. Any historian, given a large corpus of evidence showing one thing and no evidence showing anything else, would draw the obvious conclusion.
People in the 19th century couldn't wear sporran styles which hadn't evolved yet, no matter how much we might wish to project modern styles on the past. The long hair sporrans were the natural evolution of the sporran, the hair on which had first appeared in the 18th century and had got longer and longer in the early years of the 19th century.
Yes long hair sporrans were worn with ordinary outdoor day dress in the 19th century. The only other types of sporran worn then were animal mask sporrans and the occasional 100-year-old antique 18th century sporran.
Such as these...
this photo, taken the same year as some of the Highlanders of Scotland portraits were painted, shows precisely the same sort of dress.
?
Originally Posted by gpmeakin
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