Quote:
The ban on kilts, tartan, bagpipes and so on was repealed in Scotland in about 1792, and tartanalia was reinvented in Scotland in the 1820s, partly after the visit of King George IV in 1822, when Sir Walter Scott had a hand in popularising the idea of the Highlands as romantic. He even persuaded the king to wear a kilt, though the king wore flesh-coloured tights with it to preserve his modesty.
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What Forfarian has said is covered in some detail in the “Sartorial Myth” chapter of Trevor-Ropers’ book I mentioned previously.
The modern kilt was invented in 1727 by an Englishman, Thomas Rawlinson, a Quaker from Lancashire. He had hired a load of Highlanders to chop down trees. They were dressed in a full plaid.
“During his stay at Glengarry, Rawlinson became interested in the Highland costume; but he also became aware of its inconvenience. The belted plaid might be appropriate to the idle life of the Highlanders – for sleeping in the hills or lying hidden in the heather. It was also conveniently cheap, since, as all agreed, “the lower classes could not afford the expense of trousers or breeches.” But for men who had to fell trees or tend furnaces, it was a cumbrous, unwieldy habit. Therefore, being a man of genius and quick parts, Rawlinson sent for the tailor of the regiment stationed at Inverness and, with him, set out to abridge the dress and make it handy and convenient for his workmen. The result was the “felie beg”, philibeg or small kilt, which was achieved by separating the skirt from the plaid and converting it into a distinct garment, with pleats already sown.” Rawlinson wore it, as did Ian MacDonell of Glengarry, after which the clansmen obediently followed their chief. It was “found so handy and convenient that in the shortest space the use of it became frequent in all the Highland countries and in many of the Northern Lowland countries also.”
All this is really just to highlight that in the late 1500s/early 1600s, Border Reivers were not wearing kilts as we know them today. And there were no tartans. According to Trevor-Roper, sixteenth century writers who noted Highland dress describe chiefs as wearing coloured cloth, and their followers brown. Any differentiation in colour indicated your status not your clan. Martin Martin (1716) noted some stripes and colours. He assigned these differences to localities eg a whole island, and not as something that differentiated clans.
My understanding is that the average weaver in the 1500s and 1600s didn’t have the skills, time or technology to create subtle patterns either.
