have you ever been given a list of rules
for how to wear a kilt
have you ever been badgered or worse
still badgered somebody else about where
when and how they're supposed to wear it
like this and not like that
i want you to think
a little bit differently
if you're interested in the people
places and events in scottish history
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meantime
let me tell you a story
the first time we drive a car we subject
ourselves to a whole new set of rules
the first time i wore a kelp was as a
four-year-old kid dressed up for sunday
school
and know
there are no surviving photographs
but somebody else decided that i would
wear it
how it should be worn and why the
occasion was appropriate
the first time i dressed myself in a
kill was when i got married
and out for her had hired me to kill
with a set of rules to fall
how high to the knee where to position
the sparring how to tie the laces of the
brogues
the appropriateness of
undergarments you can what i mean
where did all the rules come from
did highland cow drove overs of the 17th
and early 18th century follow these
rules
what tantan they could wear was it a
bonnie prince charlie jacket or an
argyle
what social faux pas would you commit by
twisting the laces of your brogues twice
rather than three times ah
highland dress was practical clothing it
was worn by clansmen farmers drovers
wielders of swords and plowshares
but it was the reason of those swords
that changed things
you've probably heard that after the
fateful and fatal jacobite uprising in
1745 came and ended cologne the kilt was
banned
that
is not strictly true
it was only banned in certain highland
counties dumbarton stirling perth
kincardine aberdeen inverness niren
cromerty argyle fourfour banff
sutherland caithness elgin and ross
women could wear it
nobility could wear it and most of all
if you joined the british army you could
wear it
from august 1746 through to 1782
able-bodied men could only wear highland
dress
if they submitted to the rigors and
rules of military discipline
so highland dress wasn't quite banned
but it was weighed down by more rules
than a lead-filled sparring
and it has been
ever since
today
i want to liberate you
i say i won't elaborate you don't think
that i'm an expert in highland dress i'm
not but wait until you meet the woman
who lives in here
she's made kilts for royalty she's
featured in bbc one celebrity antiques
road trip she offers a fantastic online
course where she teaches ordinary folk
like you and me to make bespoke not
rule-bound kilts with over 48 hours of
video lessons and accompanying training
manual and twice weekly zoom coaching to
fit in with your lifestyle she's got to
be the most knowledgeable kilt maker
that i've ever come across and in the
comfort of your own home she'll pass
that knowledge on to you what she does
is fantastic
but you don't have to take a course to
start learning from marion foster
you see next week as one of my monthly
conversations with experts for my
patreon members i'll be sitting down to
put your questions to her
so if you're not already a patreon
member then why not click the white tab
up there to become one and send in your
questions on kilts and kelp making
have you been you've taken ages you were
just blithering i wasn't going to open
the door and let the call down i wasn't
playing i was telling them all about you
i haven't even got around to telling
them all about your theater stuff and
that oh hold on
i'll go make a cup of tea in the
meantime here's the great kill before
the ban
the great kilt the filamore and yellow
more the great wrap that is exactly what
it was
a great blanket a double with the woolen
cloth you fold it into pleats over a
belt you lie down in it
you pull the belt around you and you now
have a kelp
a jacket and a blanket for a winter's
night all in one flexible durable and
for pastoral people
practical but society was changing from
a pastoral to industrial the definition
of practical was changing as well
now like all things kilt related there's
a bit of debate about whether the next
bit is myth or reality but the story
goes then aftermath of the 1715 jacobi
uprising general wade was building roads
to open up the highlands to the military
now this also opened the area up to
trade
or economic exploitation from the south
your definition may depend on your
politics
a guy from the north of england called
thomas rawlinson set up a charcoal and
smelton business in the highlands
now he thought that this belted great
kill so practical for the pastoral life
was cumbersome and unwieldy for men
working in his new industrial works
there was no need for the upper half of
the great kilt in charcoal or iron works
so he hooked up with a military tailor
and inverness and between them they got
rid of the upper plate and used a single
width of material rather than a double
width the filament
had just become
the philabeg
the small rap
now the relationship between jacobitism
the british army and rules imposed from
the south was going to become a theme in
the development of the kilt
and it was after the last great rising
that the kill great or small
was prescribed
unless you joined the british army
it was within the british army that the
kilt that we know today was developed
uniform brought uniformity
uniformity of regimental patterns that
didn't happen straight away though at
first you could find different tartan
patterns used in the same regiment
depending on what material was available
now and what was left over from before
now if in a generation or two you force
civilian highlanders to dress like their
southern neighbors it doesn't take long
before nobody thinks to dress day-to-day
like granddad did
and ordinary country folk they wouldn't
have had the funds to invest in a kill
for a special occasion
but highland gents were appearing in
portraits in all their tartan finally
so the kelp became the preserve for the
military and those who could afford the
peacock strut of fashion
and both these environments rules
regulations and dress codes are the norm
whereas the weaving at tartan had been a
cottage industry the ban meant that
there was no point in small scale
production and the skills became lost in
the highlands the gap was filled by
larger lowland operations where
bannockburn becoming the center of
commerce
in 1778 the highland society of london
was formed and in the 1790s william
wilson and son start exporting tartan to
clothe slaves in the americas and the
caribbean
now a situation where those at the top
and those at the very bottom
are tartan clad by haughty choice or
ignominious servitude whilst those in
the middle can scarce afford the luxury
that's a serial picture
meanwhile in the british army somebody
decided that
rather than have to do all the folding
and wrapping of a morning the top of the
folds could be stitched together
and that way you could fold the kilt so
a bright line of color ran down each
visible surface fold
the first tailored kilt would be called
a box plate kilt
it would take around three and a half
yards of tartan material to make one of
these box plate kilts
maybe a few more yards for
somebody like me
after the battle of waterloo kilted
soldiers in paris drew the eyes of the
parisian ladies and the question starts
to arise as to what's worn under the
kill that's right
it's a french idea
in 1817 waterscotch rob roy was
published two years later william wilson
and sonny bannockburn produce a pattern
book of over 240 tartans five years
after that walter scott organizes the
highland pageant for the visit of george
iv
actually i made a video called walter
scott made us wear the kilt i'll leave a
link at the end
the kilt was now transformed from
practical peasant garb into aristotle
military attire
queen victoria bought balmoral in 1847
four years after that our children
appeared dressed in tartan at the
opening of the great exhibition in
london
the sun
permanently shone in the british empire
consumerism grew
and the outfiers found fashion rules to
justify selling more material
the boxes in the kelp became narrower
and the pleats became deeper so
gradually instead of three and a half
yards you now need to buy five and a
half yards to make the kill
now
if you were short of cash then the
advantage of the box kill was that when
it starts to show wear and tear in the
outer material you could have the
stitching taken out and refold the box
to reveal material that had been hidden
inside of the plate all along and hey
presto you've got a new kilt
and you'll get extra years away or
pass it on to your son
then in the 1890s boom instead of boxes
showing the stripe down the plate
why don't we make a series of knife
pleats all the way around the back
they'll be flat apron panel the front
where the pattern of the tartan can be
clearly seen
but what we'll do is we'll fold the
plates all the way around the back so
the pattern set will be visible even
though it's
oh that sounds complicated
i
but we'll sell oodles more tartan maybe
up to eight yards
what about the full nine yards
then he'd be silly
retailers had taken over from the
military as the rule makers
more recently retailers have had another
card to play but first let's remember
that you don't have to follow their
rules like they've been brought down in
tablets from mount sinai
for example in 1832 a bally was written
called lassell feed it told the story of
a young scotsman who fell in love with a
wood sprite
and as that impossible love story
progressed it promoted celts and tartan
long before anyone had heard of the bay
city roars
in 2020 when the bally was put on by the
royal danish ballet company the tailors
in the costume department
they couldn't go on a tourist kelp maker
in the royal mail and say we're looking
for 12 mini kilts for the ballet dance
and self dervishes here's my waist hip
and leg length i'll be back next tuesday
no no no no no
what they had to do was to go to marion
foster to learn bespoke kilt making
skills and then when the spin and
angular momentum a year mini kill
unbalances the precision correlation you
have to go back to marion again
so that she can calculate adjustments in
the pi r squared and bring that
helicopter into land
if there's one thing i've learned
through my experiences with mario and
it's this
getting back to the roots and essence of
the kilt isn't about following the rules
that the so-called experts will try and
imposing you rules that highland drover
would never have heard of it's about
looking good
and feeling proud
the one rule that she has a stickler for
is quality and that brings us to the
last step in the story of the kilt in
the modern era
so often with popularity comes mass
production and loss of quality
you can go up and down the royal mile or
princess street today and walk into
staggering highs sell them cheap tartan
kitsch shops
you can see tourists walking through the
grass market i'm sure you're having
those horrific looking bargain basement
creased and crumpled things that look
ridiculous from any direction and you
wonder
are they taking the piss
and just a step above that are the chain
shops probably owned by the same folk
who'll take three measurements and then
they'll fire them off to a cheap
offshore sweat shop and leave you
looking almost as ridiculous as george
iv and his pink tights in 1822
as somebody who's passionate about
communicating scottish history and
culture
as somebody who's worn the kill on and
off since a wee boy at sunday school
without really thinking about the detail
what this video has taught me
is the attention to detail and the
passion that marion has for passing on
the knowledge of proper kilt making from
the heart and soul
now let's be honest we all work within a
budget and price competitive mass
production out for us serve our purpose
but it's just not the same
as getting back to kelp making as
something that you did with your love
and care in your own home for those
around about you to the more people i
can persuade to forget the pile them
highs sell them cheap rural imposing
retailers and develop the knowledge of
kelp making the happier i'll be
if you want to learn the skills to make
your own kill or maybe make them for
other people be it for a family wedding
a highland games or just to look
fantastic
and you want to do it all
to a higher and more bespoke standard
than they do in the shops then why not
take one of marion's courses where
she'll take you step by step through the
process
you just need to go to this website by
clicking the white tab up there or the
link in the description below you'll
know it's a scotland history tour page
why
because you'll see marion measuring me
up for a kilt
and you can find out all about our
training there alternatively become a
patreon member and send her your
questions for our conversation on the
25th of july or
if you'd just like to hear about how
walter scott changed the game for kelt
wayne then click the video coming up on
screen now in the meantime
how many dockers can be alarm alive
cheerio