THE BELTED PLAID It is this tartan wrap that would later evolve into the kilt. As stated previously, the fashion in sixteenth century Gaelic Scotland was for very full clothing. The idea was the more fabric you wear in your clothing, the more affluent you must be! With the cost of wool dropping towards the end of the sixteenth century in Scotland, the woolen wraps, or plaids, began to grow larger with the fashion. At a certain point, people began to gather these large wraps into folds and belt them about the waist. This is what we call the belted plaid. In Gaelic it was called either feileadh-mór, which means “great wrap,” or breacan-an-feileadh, which means “tartan wrap.” In modern parlance, they are often referred to as “great kilts.” The earliest mention of this garment in the historic record comes from the Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell, written in Irish Gaelic in 1594. This work describes Scottish mercenaries from the Hebrides being noticeable among the Irish because of the difference in their dress. The Scots wore their belts outside their mantles – the belted plaid! This garment was about 4 to 6 yards long and on average 50” to 60" wide (made from two lengths of 25” to 30"wide cloth sewn together). The length of the cloth was simply gathered up and belted at the waist, with the lower part hanging above the knees and the upper part being brought up to the shoulders and arranged in any number of ways. There were many different ways of wearing the belted plaid, and this garment was the ubiquitous dress of the Highland men during the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries (isolated instances of its use can be found as late as 1822, but this was likely for ceremonial purposes – it had long ceased to be a part of daily dress). The female version was the arisaid, which contained somewhat less cloth, was worn long, to the ankles, and usually was made from a white tartan with a wide spaced setting. Tartan at this time is becoming almost synonymous with Highland Dress, though plaids in solid colors were also worn (as can be seen in the 1618 portrait of the chief of the Campbells of Lochawe).
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 19:07:18 +0000
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