What is a Plaid?
Cats: Scot History|
A plaid is about 12′ long. I tried to describe how Gillian would have worn it in the book, kilted, so that she could work. A long linen shirt was worn under the plaid. It was wound around and held tight by a wide black belt.
The plaid was long enough that it could serve as a blanket at night. As with most of today’s movies, don’t look to William Wallace to see how people dressed. In fact, that story is so full of holes. For example, the queen was not around at the time. If I remember (off the top of my head) she wasn’t even born yet. In fact - Wallace is a family name given to immigrants. William fought with stalwart loyalty to Scotland, but he was no true son.
Most of today’s costumes have very little ‘plaid’ and while the kilts worn in military and band regiments are standard, they do not reflect the past. It is too expensive to wear the plaid properly. A single outfit can cost $1200 - $2000 without the linen shirt.
Wearing the plaid alone was already ‘out of style’ in Calum’s day. It was only his die-hard stubborn nature, and loathing for the noble classes, that kept him from adopting the French Fashion of the young Queen Mary’s French court.
After a while the Scottish noble families made large skirts from their plaids, matching the more fashionable courts around the world.
The closest I’ve found in ‘picture’ to the research I’ve done and the people I’ve talked to that have worked hard to accurately recreate the dress of the period, is found in The Highlander Movie. At least, the first one. As time passed Hollywood stepped in and altered history.
