Evolution of the Kilt -- Part III

THE EVOLUTION OF THE KILT – PART III

The Modern Tailored Kilt

published in the Scottish Banner, October 2006

In the past two installments of this column, we have been examining the history of Scotland’s national garment, the kilt. Two months ago, we learned of the feilidh-mor (literally, “large wrap”), also known as the belted plaid. This is the grandfather of the modern kilt. Last month we dealt with the feilidh-beag (literally, “small wrap”), which is simply the lower portion of the feilidh-mor. This is the father of the modern kilt. Neither of these are tailored garments.

This month we will deal with the modern tailored kilt, by which I mean a kilt with the pleats sewn permanently into place. In some instances the feilidh-mor and feilidh-beag may have had their pleats sewn in (especially in their later development), but the true tailored kilt has the pleats sewn down – not just tacked in with a line of stitching but sewn all the way down from waist to hip. This is the modern kilt.

The earliest evidence we have of the kilt being tailored is in the Highland regiments at the very end of the eighteenth century. By this time the feilidh-mor had fallen out of general use, and the abbreviated cloth of the feilidh-beag did not have the same usefulness and versatility of its predecessor. And this, in my opinion, had a lot to do with the development of the tailored kilt.

The change from the large wrap to the small wrap took place because of a change in the lifestyle and habit of the Highland people. The smaller garment was more efficient and effective for a modern, industrial people (recall in the Thomas Rawlinson story, the first wearers of the feilidh-beag were supposedly employed in an iron works). Well, if you are no longer using your kilt as a blanket or tent, as was done with the belted plaid of old, then why not make the whole thing simpler to wear by having the pleats sewn in!

The earliest tailored kilt that we know of was a Gordon Highlanders regimental kilt. This kilt dates from 1796 and is documented in Bob Martin’s wonderful little book, All About Your Kilt (Scotpress, 2001). This kilt is made from three yards and two inches of cloth, and is box pleated to the yellow stripe. Some interesting features of this early tailored kilt are that the pleats were sewn down on the inside as well as the outside, for there is no inner lining. There are also no straps and buckles, or closures of any kind (the kilt would have been held on with pins, or with a belt). There is also no waist band at the top, for the kilt was made selvedge-to-selvedge, from 25” wide cloth, so there was no cut end. The two apron ends are self-fringed.

Most of the early tailored kilts that survive for us contain approximately four yards of cloth and are box pleated. Like the Gordon kilt described above, the earliest kilts had no lining, straps or buckles, and were not tapered from waist to hips. Military kilts were pleated to the line, while civilian kilts were pleated to no pattern at all. Beginning around 1815 civilian kilts began to adopt the military style and be pleated to stripe, as well.

The modern kilt-wearer may be struck at the amount of yardage in these kilts. A typical kilt today is made with approximately eight yards of cloth. But recall that the feilidh-mor and feilidh-beag from which the tailored kilt evolved all were about four yards in length. It only makes sense that the first tailored kilts would also be four yards long.

Because of the amount of cloth used, most of these kilts had a few (by today’s standards) wide pleats. Some had as few as six pleats across the back (a MacDuff tartan kilt, c. 1800, on display at the Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin, NC, has only six pleats). The Gordon kilt described above actually had 21 box pleats, but this is much more than the norm, due to the very small sett repeat of the tartan is was made from.

The style of the kilt remained fluid throughout the nineteenth century. Knife pleating was introduced by the Gordon Highland regiment in 1854. This would grow to be the standard form of kilt pleating today. One unique pleating style has been dubbed the “Kinguisse” pleat, after a kilt, c. 1820, in the Robertson tartan held in the Highland Folk Museum in Kinguisse, Scotland. This kilt has a single box pleat in the center back, with knife pleats fanning in opposite directions to either side.

The amount of cloth used in the kilt also increased as the century went on. Many today assume eight yards is standard for a man’s kilt – and in most cases when one is buying a civilian kilt from one of the major Highland outfitters, this is not far from the truth. But many regimental kilts from the twentieth century up to the present continue to be made from six yards of cloth or less. I personally have examined an old Hunting Stewart regimental kilt from the mid-twentieth century that, when measured, turned out to have barely five and a half yards of cloth.

Most kilts in the nineteenth century were pleated to the stripe (also called pleating to the line). This simply means that the same stripe is centered on each pleat in the kilt. Some kilts, as I said before, were pleated to no pattern at all. When Stuart Ruaidri Erskine wrote The Kilt and How to Wear It in 1901, he spoke of a “new” style of pleating where the entire pattern of the tartan was revealed in the pleats. The style he described would later come to be known as pleating to the sett (“sett” being short for the setting, or pattern of the tartan). Today, this is the most common form of pleating for civilian kilts. Military kilts continue to be pleated to the stripe, and it also remains a popular alternative for civilian wear, as well.

Much more could be written on the modern kilt and the changes and developments it has gone through. Suffice it to say that by the end of the nineteenth century the typical kilt as we think of it today (made from approximately eight yards of cloth, knife pleated, to sett or stripe, with a lining, tapered hips, and some form of closure system) was common. However, the first tailored kilts of the late eighteenth century, made from only four yards of cloth and box pleated, were just as much tailored kilts as these later developments. All that has changed is the style.

In fact, one could attend a Scottish event wearing a tailored kilt made in the style of the early nineteenth century or the early twenty-first and be just as accepted – and indeed, just as well dressed! – as any gentleman present. Most people, I dare say, wouldn’t even notice the difference. It doesn’t matter that more than two centuries separate the styles. Just try that with a pair of pants!