Talk:Gaelic clothing and fashion

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Despite common misconceptions, the common clothing of Gaels in the middle ages and earlier did not at all involve a 'kilt'; the kilt did not exist until the Victorian era. Instead, clothing was generally a leine (a knee-length shirt, sometimes dyed with saffron), a brat (a very short cloak or mantle with plaid or other coloration), a belt, and sometimes trac or trews (tight trousers). Additionally, various types of coats, robes, boots, and shoes were worn. What women wore is less known; it is often suggested that it was similar, though 'dresses' existed, though these may have just been female versions of robes.

(This statement is inaccurate. The Great Kilt existed during and possibly before the Jacobite period in Scottish History. The Small Kilt (being the Kilt that most are familiar with today) was possibly developed around the Victorian period. Considering that there was a ban against wearing Tartan that lasted for decades after the '45 Uprising (which predates the Victorian Era), it is unreasonable to state that Kilts didn't exist until the Victorian Era. Somebody please edit this section, and include some facts to back up the statements. I would do so personally, but I do not have the time to spare.

Slainte, James Satterlee  )


 * The above has been removed from the main article; if either party wishes to work out the differences, they are free to do so, however please keep such things off the main article; I'm going to attempt to work it all into a coherent piece. Canaen  23:00, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

more removed; to be worked into the article. All looks relatively accurate, but maybe not entirely relevant.
Medieval Clothing of the Scottish Gael

Before 1600 the clothing of the Scottish Gaelic resembled the clothing of the Irish Gael. In the medieval period, colours on one cloak were limited to type and number by one's station in society; the more colors, the higher one's station. The Gaelic elites also wore artfully decorated robes, and a variety of simple and complex jewellery, with precious and semi-precious stones.

Despite common misconceptions, the common clothing of the Scottish in the Middle Ages was not the kilt, as we know it today. Clothing generally consisted of a 'lèine' (a knee-length shirt, sometimes dyed with saffron for gentlemen), a 'brat' (a short cloak or mantle), a 'crios' [belt], and sometimes truibhas (trews/tight trousers). Additionally, còtaichen (coats), cuarain (soft shoe of untanned skin), and sporanan (purses) were worn.

The fèileadh mòr (belted plaid) appeared about 1600, and the fèileadh beag (filibeg/modern kilt) in the mid-eighteenth century. Less is known about what women wore. The earasaid (ariset/woman's plaid) was likely three loom widths to the man's plaid of two widths. In the illustration of a Highland regiment in Flanders in 1743, a woman on horseback wears what is likely the earasaid. In the eighteenth century, gentlewomen adopted the Lowland gùn (gown/dress) with a small plaid as a shawl.

Triubhas (trews or trousers) in combination with a breacan (plaid) were worn by gentlemen as can be seen in many paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Diamond stockings were worn with the kilt in the eighteenth century.

Cleanliness was extremely important to Gaels. Illustrations of the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries show that men's hair was worn mid-length and they were without moustaches or beards.

In the Victorian period, the Highland regiments adopted the large horsehair sporans, busbies, and spats so often worn by pipe bands. Large moustaches and beards were the fashion in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Sources: H. Cheape, Tartan

J.Telfer Dunbar, History of Highland Dress

C. Hesketh, Tartans

H. F. McClintock, Old Irish and Highland Dress