[Ponte Alto] Please, no more kilts...

[Thomas Gideon]

OK, I have to speak up, if nothing else than to perhaps forestall yet
another person being instructed to talk to me about doing Scottish, as I
did Scottish "back in the day" and despite the fact that I have been doing
borderline OOP English for the last few years to the exclusion of all else.

First, excellent links, Giuliana!  I would recommend against looking into
the kilts from the Williamsburg import store, though, as much for cost as
that they are modern garments and bear little or no relation to historical
garments within the SCA period (or ECW or Victorian, for that matter).

The modern kilt as we know it is GOOP, being introduced in the 17th or 18th
century.  I had heard, and one of Giuliana's resource corroborates, that
the small kilt was actually invented by an Englishman, a tailor, I believe.
Also, as I understand it, up until tartans were outlawed by the English,
sometime in the 18th or 19th century, Scots of any distinction did not wear
kilts.  Scottish lairds were familiar with the English court and tended to
follow English and continental fashion.  So a 13th or 14th century Scot,
portraying the nominal minor nobility as is suggested in the SCA, would be
wearing a cotehardie or a houpelande or something in that vein, not any
sort of kilt.

As for period kilts, bear in mind a few things.  The so called great kilt
began largely as a bed roll or similar that was wrapped ad hoc around the
wearer as a convenient way of wear it.  By the kit in the picture within
the first site Giuliana listed, I would say that the fellow is actually
doing ECW, so you may be advised to take material even on great kilts with
a grain of salt.  As I understand it, in our period, it was rarely plaid
and it was typically worn over a simple shirt or tunic WITH trews, which
often were plaid but cut on the bias so as the plaid pattern formed
diamonds.  Period kilts were not pleated, as such, they were simply wrapped
about the body and belted, somewhat like a toga or a gypsy blanket.

Bear in mind that in our time frame, such attire is basically peasant
dress--if you want to do a farmer or herder impression, more power to you,
but that's not my understanding of what the SCA suggests so your reactions may
vary.

I, too, did period Scottish completely wrong, when I first started in the
SCA.  Granted, I did so as much out of ignorance as an interest in  of my
own modern heritage and out of friendship for the man who helped my finally
get my act together in the SCA, who happened to perpetuate the use of
modern Scottish attire as acceptable for our period.  However I have
learned better and ask that anyone looking to do a Scottish persona in the
SCA to stop their fixation with kilts and take a moment to consider as much
as is possible the historical reality of the period Scots and either
attempt a true impression or, perhaps, select something else as more
suitable.

I have had moments, more so recently, where I am considering
re-working my original persona into a rural rogue of some sort, garbed as
described and possibly fighting SCA side sword with a schiavona, a later
period weapon favored largely by mercenaries and tentatively linked with
the Scottish basket hilt.  I have seen other folks do right by such
impressions but wonder if my reputation as a Scot combined with the
occasional use of more accurate garb and kit would better serve to dispell
what I am finding to be an increasingly more common kilt obsession and
perhaps inspire more considered persona development.

OK, back into storage goes my rarely used soap box and back to lurking I go.

In service,

Lord Thomas Lyon of Braemar, of the Clan Farquharson
Freescholar, AdE
-- 

"You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are."
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch

mailto:thomas at gideonfamily.org
http://www.gideonfamily.org/tom/
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